Chequered business history of troubleshooter overseeing sale of Bristol Energy

A troubleshooter has been brought in to oversee the sale of Bristol Energy – but he has been director of five companies which are no longer in operation.

Allan Booth, who was appointed managing director of the council-owned, loss-making firm in March, has a history of parachuting into businesses on the brink of collapse and restructuring them.

The 66-year-old has been a director of three businesses that have gone into liquidation as well as two sister firms that were dissolved where his occupation was listed as “turnaround expert”, according to records at Companies House.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or incompetence and he is not on the list of disqualified directors.

Booth says in his LinkedIn profile that he brings a “wealth of knowledge and experience (including some mistakes!)”.

Allan Booth has been director of five companies which are no longer in operation – image taken from Allan Booth’s LinkedIn page

Now he has been charged with salvaging the fortunes of Bristol Energy, which the council looks likely to sell despite ploughing up to £37.7m of council taxpayers’ money into the business.

An extraordinary meeting of full council has been forced by opposition councillors on May 26 to debate the future of the firm amid growing alarm, having been postponed because of the coronavirus lockdown.

Booth’s previous role of director was as management accountant with Towcester Racecourse Company, which went into administration in August 2018 with debts of £1.3m and the loss of 134 jobs.

He had been appointed in February the previous year – although his LinkedIn page says he was involved since August 2015 – and the business was liquidated in May 2019.

A report by joint administrators KPMG said the firm had “faced financial difficulty for several years”.

Before that, Booth was a director of publishing firm publicservice.co.uk and its holding company PCSA Holdings when they were dissolved in 2016 and 2015 respectively.

He was appointed a director of both at the start of 2013 – seven months before PCSA’s board appointed joint administrators – with his occupation listed as “turnaround expert”.

According to administrators Duff & Phelps’ final progress report, no funds were available to pay the £9.5m owed to creditors.

Records filed at Companies House show Booth was one of four directors of publicservice.co.uk at the time and was chairman of PCSA’s general meeting in November 2013 when a resolution to wind up the company was agreed.

His LinkedIn profile says he was appointed as chief restructuring officer “at the urging of RBS to conduct a consensual restructure and/or exit and implement turnaround plan” of the £10m publishing business.

He was also a director of plastic packaging sister companies Gelpack Excelsior Ltd and Gelpack Industrial Ltd.

Booth was appointed as accountant to both in July 2016 and resigned in May 2017, three months before the firms appointed administrators. They went into liquidation the following February.

On his LinkedIn page, Booth says his role was chairman and chief restructuring officer (CRO) and that he exited Gelpack after a “successful re-bank”.

Administrators brought into a company have a statutory duty to file a report to the Government’s Insolvency Service into the conduct of anyone who was a director or had been up to three years prior to their appointment.

Records at Companies House show these were submitted as required but all say their findings are confidential.

An Insolvency Service spokesman said the reports were “standard procedure” and that as a matter of course it would not confirm or deny if it was proceeding with disqualification measures.

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Read more: Council could cut losses with possible sale of energy company

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The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) – funded by the BBC to write stories that are shared among local media organisations including Bristol24/7 – asked Bristol City Council to explain Booth’s appointment as MD of its energy firm, and if it could reassure employees over possible job losses and council taxpayers who have funded the company.

The LDRS also asked for details of his involvement in the businesses which have gone into liquidation or been dissolved, what happened in each case and for the outcomes of the administrators’ reports to the Insolvency Service.

A city council spokesperson said they would not be commenting on any personnel and added: “A report on the future of Bristol Energy will come to cabinet in June.”

Bristol Energy directed all requests for comment to the city council.

However, head of paid service at City Hall, Mike Jackson, told a council meeting last month: “The previous chief executive parted company with Bristol Energy a few weeks ago.

“There is an interim manager in place with a particular skill set around the current challenges facing Bristol Energy – Allan Booth.”

The new MD says on his LinkedIn profile: “As a change leader and growth coach, I’m able to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience (including some mistakes!), coupled with an action centred, energetic approach to what I do.

“The stakeholders and teams I work with get a grey-haired but vital member of their team who they can lean on to help them to create their future.

“Financially qualified and with a background in marketing, I have been a commercial director, managing director, chairman and change consultant at board level for the last 30 years working with businesses ranging from £1-50m turnover in B2B manufacturing and services.”

The page has not been updated to include Bristol Energy.

Several of Booth’s roles throughout his career are listed as chief restructuring officer (CRO), which is described as a senior officer of a company given broad powers to renegotiate all aspects of a company’s finances to deal with an impending bankruptcy or to restructure a company following a bankruptcy filing.

CROs are sometimes compared to “turnaround” consultants but differ because they are an official of the company with executive power.

Booth replaced Marek Majewicz as Bristol Energy managing director on March 16.

Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Read more: Council could cut losses with possible sale of energy company