Total Global Steel has been forced into liquidation by creditors after a UK court ruled in May that the London-based trading house must pay Deutsche Bank 4.2 million euros ($5.1 million) in damages for selling the German bank recycled carbon credits.
Total Global Steel (TGS) entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation in June after running out of money, and a committee of creditors will now oversee the sale of what’s left of the shuttered trading firm’s assets, said a spokesman from Begbies Traynor, the appointed liquidators.
The spokesman said he could not elaborate further on the matter nor name any of the creditors.
Efforts by Reuters Point Carbon to contact TGS, its managing director and majority shareholder Martin Lonergan, the firms’ other listed directors or former employees were unsuccessful, as were requests for comment from the company’s solicitors.
Creditors’ voluntary liquidation involves a company’s shareholders passing a resolution to wind up the firm and sell its assets, often as a result of mounting pressure from unpaid creditors.
A source working in the shabby grey building in central London that used to house TGS’ metals, power and carbon trading operations said, on request of anonymity, the company had vacated in March after “packing up and leaving in the middle of the night”.
The source said TGS laid off most of its London staff earlier this year, a claim supported by the LinkedIn profiles of several former employees showing they all parted ways with the company in January.
“They owe a lot of people a lot of money,” the source said, adding that UK tax collectors were among those on the list.
