Bid to rescue Carlow firm Whitelite fails, High court hears

A bid by an examiner to mount a rescue scheme for Carlow company Whitelite Automation Ltd and 29 of its employees has failed, the High Court has heard.

Barrister Eithne Corry told Mr Justice Bernard Barton that a potential investor had withdrawn its interest in the company and the examiner, Neil Hughes, of Hughes Blake, was seeking to have the company put into liquidation.

Ms Corry said the 100-day court protection of the company against its creditors had ended on Tuesday and Mr Hughes considered the best interests of creditors would be served by Whitelite being wound up and its assets being sold off.

Ross Gorman, counsel for the company which designed and built control panels for the power industry, told the court that the company was supporting Mr Hughes’ application.

Mr Hughes, who was appointed joint liquidator with Joseph Walsh, said in an affidavit that the main reason for the withdrawal of interest by the proposed confidential investor was due to external factors, most notably the recent collapse in the price of oil and the current economic crisis in Russia.