Owner Buys Argyll Club Out Of Administration And Drafts In Former CEO

The owner of London flexible office operator and real estate owner Argyll Club has bought the company out of administration following a refinancing of its debt.

And the company has drafted in its former chief executive as a director as it looks to embark on a new strategy, Bisnow can reveal.

Celvam Management, which is backed by former Labara Group co-founder Ratheesan Yoganathan, has bought back Argyll Club, Bloomberg reported. The company has 38 London locations, 11 of which it owns. 

Celvam bought the company for £475M in 2018, using £278M of debt provided by Citi and CPPIB. IWG bought into the £40M junior loan, previously owned by CPPIB, and used a covenant breach to trigger Argyll Club’s administration. Partners from Alix were appointed in December.

A report from the administrators said a global sales process of the company was undertaken, and that process has now resulted in the previous owner buying the company back. 

“The refinancing marks the end of the administration process as agreed with the U.K. administrators,” the Argyll Club told Bloomberg in a statement. “The Argyll Club will now work to introduce a new strategy for the business. Existing customers’ agreements will be unaffected by the transaction.”

Records for Argyll Club at Companies House show that the company has appointed John Drover as a director. Drover was CEO at the company under its previous guise as Executive Office Group from 2000 to 2013, when it was owned by Soros Real Estate Partners and then Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. 

He left when the company was bought by Queensgate Investments in 2013 and has since been chief executive at Parkwest Capital, an investment platform for wealthy individuals.