Avison Young has had winding-up orders issued to its United Kingdom business lifted after settling millions of pounds of tax liabilities.
The decision comes after lawyers for Toronto-based Avison Young had appeared in a London court last week to request an order to unfreeze its bank accounts so it could pay the debt to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the United Kingdom government tax authority.
In a statement on Wednesday Avison Young said: "As of today, the HMRC winding-up petition against the relevant Avison Young UK entities has been formally dismissed. This follows the settlement of all outstanding obligations and the completion of the necessary legal process. At no point was this matter related to Avison Young’s ability to fund or pay its tax obligations.
The firm added that its business performed in line with its budget for the first half, "delivering positive year-on-year revenue and EBITDA growth. We are building on this momentum, pursuing growth across our service lines and remaining firmly focused on delivering high-quality, differentiated service for our clients.”
NatWest Group had frozen the bank accounts of several United Kingdom units of the property broker after HMRC had made the initial winding-up petition, according to a Bloomberg report, adding that Avison Young had estimated that the amount it owed would be more than £7.7 million ($10.4 million) by the end of July.
“The existence of the petitions and the freeze on the bank accounts has already had a significant impact on the ability of the companies to run the business on a day-to-day basis,” Avison Young’s lawyers had said in its written arguments in Court. “Even though the companies have the funds to pay the petition debts, they are unable to do so because the bank accounts have been frozen.”
Petition lifted
After the High Court appearance last Thursday, Avison Young had confirmed it had been given the go-ahead to settle what it called "surprise" legal proceedings. That has now been completed and the petition lifted.
HMRC, which administers tax in the United Kingdom, filed the winding-up petition against Avison Young Holdings, the main United Kingdom arm, and Avison Young Workplace, the facilities management arm on 22 July. Winding-up petitions, if enforced by the High Court, could force the compulsory liquidation of a company. HMRC often issues winding up orders due to unpaid tax, and debts are often repaid and petitions withdrawn.
After last Thursday's Court ruling on the petition a spokesperson for Avison Young said: "Prior to the legal action being taken, our finance team had been in regular dialogue with HMRC regarding the outstanding liability. We had initiated payment dates which we understood to be acceptable to HMRC and expected those discussions to continue. The decision to initiate legal proceedings therefore came as a surprise.
"Although HMRC initiated legal proceedings, it neither served the order nor disputed our application to have it set aside once payment had been made."
A HMRC spokesperson had said: "We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and only file winding-up petitions once we’ve exhausted all other options, in order to protect taxpayers’ money."
Regulatory filing
In Avison Young's last published results, the parent company for its United Kingdom and Europe business, Avison Young Holdings, made a regulatory filing to Companies House for calendar year 2024, which showed total revenue of £212.6 million, up slightly on 2023, and a pretax loss of £101.1 million, the same figure as the prior year.
Avison Young said the figures had been driven by difficult economic conditions in the United Kingdom that resulted in slow growth.
It was also hit with an impairment of goodwill in the year of £70 million following a review of expected future cashflow which has been "derisked in line with" United Kingdom economic growth estimates.
Its 2025 accounts are due to be filed at Companies House, where private companies file their accounts and other formal documents, by the end of September.
The global real estate broker has more than 100 offices across the world including in Europe, America and Asia. It grew exponentially in the United Kingdom in 2019 via its acquisition of GVA.