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Remember Andrew Mills? Liz Truss advisor, architect of the VIP lane red carpet to riches Ayanda deal which involved the NHS blowing £155m on unusable facemasks?
We explained in this thread how the deal involved us paying up to £166m over and above the prices we were paying to other mask suppliers (which of course themselves embedded huge profits). https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1315910339821817856?s=19
Remember Tim Horlick, owner of Ayanda, saying "I am not at liberty to disclose" how much profit he was making "but it will be in our accounts in due course"?
(Of course he is "at liberty to disclose" it. He just doesn't want to.)
(Of course he is "at liberty to disclose" it. He just doesn't want to.)
Well.
We've uncovered an interesting thing. Back in mid July 2020 a previously dormant company called Leonmead converted from being a (normal) limited company to an unlimited company.
And then a week later our old friend Andrew Mills becomes a director and his boxfresh £100 vehicle Prospermill (how they laughed!) Limited becomes the "person with significant control".
What is an unlimited company? A very odd thing indeed. @GoodLawProject is blessed with two tax lawyers and we'd never seen one before. But there is this: s.448 of the Companies Act 2006 says they don't have to file accounts (where certain conditions are satisfied).
Now, at this stage you might be beginning to smell a very plump rat.
But never fear. Section 448(2)(a) says that an unlimited company still has to publish its accounts where it is owned by a limited company. And Leonmead is owned by Prospermill Limited. Phew! Right?
But never fear. Section 448(2)(a) says that an unlimited company still has to publish its accounts where it is owned by a limited company. And Leonmead is owned by Prospermill Limited. Phew! Right?
Hmm.
On 28 October was heard in the office of an obscure accountant the reverberations of a penny dropping.
And three months after Leonmead became an unlimited company, Prospermill (the architect of the Ayanda deal and Leonmead's owner) also became an unlimited company.
On 28 October was heard in the office of an obscure accountant the reverberations of a penny dropping.
And three months after Leonmead became an unlimited company, Prospermill (the architect of the Ayanda deal and Leonmead's owner) also became an unlimited company.
And now the coup de grâce.
S.448(a) says Leonmead can only not publish accounts if for its whole accounting period it was not a subsidiary of a limited company. And so Leonmead extends its accounting period to several days after Prospermill became an unlimited company.
S.448(a) says Leonmead can only not publish accounts if for its whole accounting period it was not a subsidiary of a limited company. And so Leonmead extends its accounting period to several days after Prospermill became an unlimited company.
What this means is that for the whole of (unlimited company) Leonmead's accounting period beginning 1.11.20 it will have been owned by (unlimited company) Prospermill and won't have to publish its accounts.
Back in August, when I broke the story of Ayanda and the £155m you and I spent on unusable facemasks I said I expected the vast majority of the profit would be Andrew Mills' and Ayanda would take a relatively small fee. https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1291248957130145792?s=19
I still think that's true now. I think Ayanda - which in April when the deal was done probably thought it was getting a healthy slice for doing very little - is now likely to feel aggrieved at being the putz which has taken much of the political heat for not enough.
And the real money will have been made by Liz Truss' adviser, Andrew 'VIP' Mills, who the NAO seems to point the finger at for continuing to lobby after the deal was done for payments to be made quickly.
But thanks to the Unlimited Company shenanigans we will likely never know.
But thanks to the Unlimited Company shenanigans we will likely never know.
