Baldwins Travel set to be wound up at High Court hearing on Wednesday

Baldwins Travel is due to be wound up at a High Court hearing on Wednesday (June 25), ending a complex and uncertain chapter in the Kent-based agency’s history.

 

Investment firm Westwood Capital Finance sent in receivers on May 7 following Baldwin’s default on loans secured against the freehold of three properties – the company’s head office in Tunbridge Wells and buildings in Tonbridge and Tenterden – in November 2023.

 

Baldwins’ sole director Nick Marks, whose family owned and ran the agency until September 2021, registered a High Court winding up petition on May 8.

 

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The winding up comes after Abta terminated Baldwins’ membership on April 1, Iata suspended Baldwins’ accreditation on April 28 and the Advantage Travel Partnership confirmed Baldwins was no longer a member in May.

 

However, Baldwins’ difficulties go back to September 2021 when the business was acquired by Inc Travel Group, part of a web of companies run by Jack Mason – who became a Baldwins director – Scott Dylan and David Antrobus.

 

Two months later, Barclays Bank launched court proceedings against Mason, Dylan, Antrobus and others in pursuit of £13.7 million in “unauthorised borrowings” and subsequently obtained freezing orders prohibiting the sale or transfer of assets, including Baldwins.

 

The three men were found to have breached these orders by moving the assets, including ownership of Baldwins, first to a company in the British Virgin Islands and then to the US state of Delaware, and each was sentenced to 22 months in prison by a High Court judge last October.

 

The judge had offered up to 12 months’ remission on these sentences if assets, including Baldwins’ shares, were transferred back to the UK, but without response.

 

The receivers have made clear their role is solely “to manage and sell” the three properties and although the Barclays freezing orders pre-date the charges on the properties, this is understood not to be an issue.

 

It’s unclear whether Baldwins’ ultimate owner, Delaware-listed Worldwide Travel Holdings, is involved in the winding up as the petition was filed by Marks.

 

However, company filings show Worldwide Travel Holdings retains 75% or more of the shares in Baldwins and the High Court was satisfied that Dylan, Mason and Antrobus retained control of the Delaware company and thus of Baldwins Travel.

 

Marks did not respond to requests for comment. Abta confirmed members could “submit pipeline claims in respect of Baldwins Travel” in May.