Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Robert Maxwell built an extensive publishing empire within Britain and abroad. He acquired the British Printing Corporation (BPC) in 1981, changed its name to the British Printing and Communication Corporation (BPCC) in March 1981 and then to the Maxwell Communications Corporation plc (MCC) in October 1987. Headington Holdings Limited, originally called Pergamon Holdings Limited, was established in 1986 as one of Robert Maxwell's private companies and came under the Robert Maxwell Group. Other linked Maxwell group companies included; Bishopsgate Investment Management Limited.
After Maxwell's death in 1991, huge discrepancies in his companies' finances were revealed, including that he had misused £450 million of his Mirror Group's pension fund. It was discovered that shares in a French investment trust, Euris, based in Paris, France had been been removed from the pension funds and pledged as collateral against a £22.5 million loan to Headington Holdings. MCC was placed under the joint administration of United States and English bankruptcy courts acting with the help of Price Waterhouse and its properties were sold to various media companies. The pension funds were replenished in part by investment banks Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs, as well as the British government.
Registered office address: 1 More London Place, London, SE1 2AF.