Venator Collapsed Owing over £600 MILLION to Creditors...
- teessidetoday
- Nov 17
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 18
The collapse of Venator Materials PLC in September 2025, poised to be one of the largest corporate failures the region has seen in recent years, with the full scale of the firms financial catastrophe only just being made fully known in a liquidators statement of affairs.
17th November 2025
A newly-published Statement of Affairs for a company once operating in Hartlepool has unveiled the true scale of the firms financial collapse, with Venator Materials PLC's administration poised to leave a huge financial black hole, with unsecured creditors poised to receive virtually nothing back and the Teesside & Durham Post learning the company’s overall deficit exceeding £600 million.
The document, filed as part of the administration process, offers the clearest and most official breakdown to date of Venator’s true financial position. And for Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC), the likelihood of recovering up to £500,000 in unpaid business rates, looks to be 'extremely poor'.
On entering administration on the 2nd September 2025, its claimed Venator Materials PLC declared Total unsecured creditor claims of £535,173,387, with an Estimated final deficit to members/shareholders of £613,331,456, revealing Venator Materials PLC owed far more than it owns – by hundreds of millions of pounds.
The financial analyst we asked to take a look at the firms financial statement found the only assets of meaningful value are inter-company receivables and loans – many of which have been marked as “uncertain” in terms of recoverability – plus a small amount of cash and VAT reclaimable. Administrators estimate that just £4.46 million of floating-charge assets will actually be realised against hundreds of millions pounds in outstanding liabilities.
Even after applying the legally-required “prescribed part” for unsecured creditors, a token £897,374 remains for distribution. Unsecured claims now reportedly exceed £535 million, which means the expected recovery for unsecured creditors is likely to be less than 0.2 Pence in the Pound...
How Much is Hartlepool Borough Council Likely to Recover in Business Rates?
The Teesside & Durham Post recently reported that Hartlepool Borough Council could be set to potentially lose around £500,000 pounds in lost business rates revenue due to Venator’s collapse. Whilst the Statement of Affairs does not list HBC by name, we've been told Hartlepool Borough Council's claim sits within the wider pool of unsecured creditors. Given the total prescribed part available to unsecured creditors is only £897,374,against the £535,173,387 owed in unsecured claims, the predicted recovery rate is near 0%, with Hartlepool Borough Council almost certain to receive nothing from the administration.
Put simply: Every pound Hartlepool Borough Council is owed in Business Rates is likely gone. This confirms earlier warnings that the council — and therefore the Hartlepool taxpayer — is likely to be left having to absorb the half a million pound hit...
Why was Venators Losses So Extreme ?
A number of factors in the Statement of Affairs explain the near-total wipe-out. Its claimed a major secured creditor holds the fixed and floating charges totalling £450,374,828, fully exhausting almost all realisable asset value, with Venator’s balance sheet containing huge intra-group receivables and loans — many unlikely to be recoverable from insolvent subsidiaries.
In terms of 'real world assets' Only £614,965 of cash and small “fixed assets” worth £371,275 were available. Most “assets” are accounting entries, not cash.
Overwhelming unsecured claims...
The unsecured creditor list is 'huge' & is said to consist of :
Parent company guarantees (£21.4m)
Outstanding IPO-related liabilities (£9.48m)
AFCO insurance financing (£7.09m)
Inter-group payables (£31m)
US tax withholding (£6,938)
Dozens of global suppliers and service providers
Unsecured claims total £535 million — a figure the administrators clearly regard as unrecoverable.
What This Means for Hartlepool
Venator Materials PLC was one of the anchor employers in Hartlepool, and its collapse affects not only jobs and the supply chain, but also the local public purse. Hartlepool Borough Council is likely expected to Revise its Q3 MTFS to reflect the £500k losses sometime in Early 2026, as well as undertaking the publicly unpopular measure of having to Write off its full exposure to the £500k losses, absorbing it into future budgets...
The formal Statement of Affairs confirms Venator Materials PLC crashed into insolvency on a catastrophic scale, with liabilities exceeding asset realisations by more than £600 million. The collapse is Venator Materials PLC, whether parts of the company are sold off or not, is likely to go down as one of the region’s largest recent corporate failures, leaving creditors empty-handed and taxpayers footing the bill.
There may be a glimmer of hope, as the firm could potentially restart operations
On a slightly positive note, its claimed an asset purchase agreement has been signed with the Chinese-based LB Group for the Greatham plant. The facility, located on Hartlepool's Tees Road is currently being maintained in an "idle state" whilst the sale is finalised. The LB Group has expressed its commitment to completing the transaction and potentially restarting operations in the future, however, no date has been officially set...
