A landlord owed nearly half-a-million pounds by Lloydspharmacy’s former holding company has raised concerns about its liquidators’ “conflicts of interest”.

AAH Limited - the holding company for Lloydspharmacy and its sister companies until its private equity owner Aurelius restructured the company - owed property company LCN £452,358 in outstanding rent by February this year, C+D has learned. 

After it was sold in August, AAH Ltd abandoned the two buildings it leased from LCN for its head office in Coventry and stopped paying rent without notice, C+D was told.

Read more: Lloydspharmacy goes into liquidation with £293m owed to creditors

LCN issued a petition for AAH Ltd’s winding up to recover the debt via compulsory liquidation in February, but a court instead allowed the company to be placed into voluntary liquidation at a hearing earlier this month (April 10). 

The following day (April 11), Turpin Barker Armstrong (TBA) and Menzies were appointed as joint liquidators for AAH Ltd by its former parent company the Hallo Healthcare Group (HHG). 

But LCN said that it “has concerns about conflicts of interest” with the company voluntary liquidation. 

Read more: March 2025 hearing set for former Lloydspharmacy staff redundancy row

C+D was told that another company owned by Aurelius is paying for the costs of the company voluntary liquidation and for the cost to oppose LCN’s winding up petition.

TBA has also been appointed as liquidator to other companies formerly owned by Aurelius, including Lloydspharmacy itself.

 

New owner paid by Aurelius

 

According to Companies House records, AAH Ltd’s name was changed on August 31 – with the change registered on September 11 - and Graham Wiseman was made its sole director on the same day. 

Wiseman acquired AAH Ltd for £1, along with a £50 million debt that it owed to the Hallo Healthcare Group, and also acquired Lloydspharmacy around the same time, C+D has learned.

In January, it was revealed that Lloydspharmacy had been placed into liquidation with £293m owed to creditors. 

Read more: Former owner bags £415m dividend from Lloydspharmacy and LloydsDirect sales

Now, C+D has learned that Wiseman was paid by Aurelius to take over AAH Ltd.

Wiseman has also been appointed as a director to other Aurelius-owned companies that are now insolvent, most notably The Body Shop.

However, former Lloydspharmacy owner HHG previously told C+D that the new proprietor was acting independently to manage its affairs.

 

Aurelius restructuring “cannot be right”

 

An LCN spokesperson told C+D that it wants full and independent scrutiny of “the restructuring of the AAH Ltd group and the actions of Aurelius” to check compliance with “all relevant laws”.

“It cannot be right that Aurelius acquires a group, restructures it leading to its insolvency and then has any influence over the liquidation process,” LCN’s spokesperson said.

The liquidation process should consider “the facts leading to the company’s insolvency” and whether any of its creditors have been “unfairly prejudiced”, they added.

Read more: HMRC investigating Lloydspharmacy over possible £33m locum tax bill

LCN “wishes to understand” why Wiseman would have bought AAH Ltd if the company had “a genuine £50m liability to” HHG, the spokesperson told C+D.

The property company is “awaiting court dates for a full hearing of these important issues before a judge”, they said.

An Aurelius spokesperson told C+D that it has “no comment on portfolio company affairs” while neither HHG nor TBA responded to requests for comment.

Read more: ‘No realistic prospect’ of proper payout in Lloydspharmacy redundancy row

C+D attempts to contact Wiseman were unsuccessful.

It comes as HHG has paid out a £405 million dividend to its shareholders from the sales of Lloydspharmacy and LloydsDirect and posted a profit of £76.4m for the year ending March 31, its annual report revealed earlier this month.

Meanwhile, former Sainsbury’s workers claiming enhanced redundancy from the Lloydspharmacy estate will have their case heard in March 2025, despite a possible victory offering “no realistic hope” of full compensation.