CSDM owed 1.4m when it called in administrators

Charity donation management company CSDM went into administration owing almost 1.4m to creditors, it has emerged.

However, £740,000 of that is owed to companies that hold CSDM director Chris Stoddard as director. The other major creditor is One Post, which is owed £267,309.

Herefordshire-based CSDM went into administration with Nickolas Rimes and Adam Jordan, of insolvency practitioner Rimes & Co, on 15 June, before assets were sold to CSDM Fundraising Directors.

At the time, Stoddard, as well as Rimes & Co's Kate Stokes, claimed creditors would be paid in full.

Based on the creditors' report, circulated in advance of a meeting this Friday (20 August), there is no floating charge holder, so any funds the administrator accrues should go straight to the unsecured creditors.

Mark Cornford, managing director at one of the creditors, Integrity Print, said: "I'm obviously extremely disappointed to have this outstanding debt, but we have been advised by the administrator that creditors will be paid so await Friday's meeting."

CSDM's assets were £80,000 worth of contracts, which CSDM Fundraising Directors is paying for over a six-month period. CSDM was also owed £102,451 from donations received from pre-administration mailing. The administrators have entered into an agreement with the new company, which will see it take a fee of 10% for collecting outstanding donations.

CSDM Fundraising Directors has also been assigned a two-year contract which was excluded from the sale. The contract was not due to start until 1 July 2010 and the administrator said: "It was decided that the organisation for whom the contract would be undertaken would be less likely to terminate the agreement if the company was in a position to service the contract."

A consideration, payable on a monthly basis for 36 months, will be passed to the administrator and will be calculated as 15% of turnover generated, or £3,000 – whichever is greater.

It has emerged in the report that the reasons behind CSDM's administration, which the company put down to a "series of recent events", were the earthquake in Haiti, which diverted attentions towards one charity, affecting its donation level, and the postal strike.

It also lost a legal case against a supplier in 2009, which led to costs of £60,000 being paid and HM Revenue and Customs levied an assessment of £85,079 in respect of a long-standing tax dispute.