The decision stops in its tracks plans by housing veteran Jolyon Harrison to sell his NorthCountry Homes business to Inland as part of a complex rescue bid.
The proposed deal amounted to a reverse takeover that was designed to salvage the Inland operations while gaining an AIM listing and saw Harrison parachute in as CEO to head a new management team.
FRP Advisory, which had previously been engaged by Inland to probe related party relations and transactions under the previous management team, is set to take over as administrators.
Their engagement came midway through a year of turmoil, which started with the resignation of its former chief executive Stephen Wickes last September when losses were forecast to be £37m.
FRP’s accountants were upon later in March after Inland Homes failed to produce accounts for September 2022 and predicted losses for the year were now likely to be £91m.
This led to the £181m turnover AIM-listed house builder’s shares being suspended in April.
In a stock market statement on Wednesday, Inland said: “The review conducted by FRP has provided sufficient indication that further work is still required into material judgements and estimates applied to the financial statements both for the year to 30 September 2022 and for the year to 30 September 2021 before the preparation of the financial statements could be completed and then audited.
“The extent of further work and cost required to complete the preparation of the financial statements and the audit for FY22 cannot be certain at this stage, and the timeframe within which this might be feasible is not known.”
“Inland has reviewed options to continue its policy of seeking to complete existing construction projects at the same time as undertaking a comprehensive programme of disposals of its land assets.
“Taking into account the current circumstances and including the group structure and the current cash resources available to it, Inland has concluded that the appointment of administrators is in the best interests of all stakeholders.”
The statement also revealed that July’s announcement of Inland’s proposed £4m acquisition of NorthCountry Homes as part of a strategy to develop a low-cost homes business model, was contingent on the restoration to trading on AIM of Inland’s shares.
The plan instituted by former Gleeson CEO, Harrison, was to take advantage of low Northern land values, while developing the Inland brownfield and strategic land business in the South, as well as completing Inland’s existing construction commitments.
Shares in Inland will by cancelled on 4 October.
