Sonovate-backed recruitment firm Tec Partners enters administration

Sonovate Limited, a specialist recruitment finance lender, holds the sole secured charge over Tec Partners (South East) Limited, created just ten months before the recruitment firm entered administration on 1 May 2026. The High Court of Justice, sitting in the Business and Property Courts in Leeds, sealed the appointment under case number CR-2026-000451.

Tec Partners (South East) is a temporary and contract staffing business, operating under SIC code 78200, which covers temporary employment agency activities. The company was incorporated on 11 April 2000, originally trading as ABRS Limited before adopting its current name in September 2017. It is 26 years old.

The administrators

James Miller and Lee Lockwood, both of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP, have been appointed as joint administrators. Administration is a formal insolvency process in which licensed insolvency practitioners take control of a company to try to rescue it, sell it as a going concern, or realise its assets for creditors. Miller holds IP number 21290 and Lockwood holds IP number 13050. Joint administrators are two or more insolvency practitioners appointed to act together, though either may generally act alone unless the appointment specifies otherwise. Correspondence for the case is handled through RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP at Central Square, Fifth Floor, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4DL.

The secured charge

Sonovate Limited holds the only outstanding registered charge over Tec Partners (South East). The charge was created and delivered on 27 June 2024, meaning it was registered roughly ten months before the administration appointment. Sonovate is known as an invoice-finance lender that focuses specifically on the recruitment sector, providing funding against contractor invoices. As a secured creditor, Sonovate ranks ahead of unsecured creditors when the administrators distribute any realisations from the company's assets.

The directors

Four directors were in post at the time of the administration notice. Andrew Lloyd Bailey has served as a director since the company's incorporation on 11 April 2000. Christopher Beech, Leigh Howard and Paul Kitley were each appointed on 22 December 2016. No directors had resigned immediately prior to the administration filing, based on the Companies House record.

For creditors, suppliers and employees

Once administrators are appointed, the conduct of creditor claims passes to the insolvency practitioners. Miller and Lockwood will issue statutory communications to known creditors in due course, with correspondence handled through the RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP address in Leeds.

Creditors wishing to evidence the amounts owed to them do so by submitting a proof of debt, which is the formal claim form used in insolvency proceedings to record what a creditor is owed and on what basis.

The appointment triggers a moratorium under Schedule B1, paragraph 43 of the Insolvency Act 1986, which pauses most creditor enforcement action. Creditors cannot ordinarily start or continue court proceedings against the company without the court's permission while the moratorium is in place.

Customers who have paid for services not yet delivered, or who hold deposits, rank as unsecured creditors in the administration. Unsecured creditors are those whose debts are not backed by a charge over the company's assets, and they are paid only after secured and preferential creditors have been satisfied from whatever funds are available.

Employees whose wages, notice pay or redundancy entitlements are outstanding may have claims that rank as preferential in part. Where an employer cannot meet those obligations, the Redundancy Payments Service, which is a government body, exists to handle statutory redundancy and certain other employment-related claims arising from insolvency. The administrators' proposals, filed on 15 May 2026, will set out the intended course of the administration in more detail.