RSM Tenon collapsed owing nothing to its defined contribution pension scheme, having paid off a £636,000 contribution shortfall,  its potential buyer Baker Tilly has said.

The UK's seventh-largest accountant, which employs 225 in Scotland across five offices, was put into administration last week by Lloyds Banking Group.

Its last accounts showed the £636,000 shortfall in employer contributions to its Scottish Widows-run group pension scheme had widened from £368,000 in 2011 and £225,000 in 2010.

But a Baker Tilly spokesman said the shortfall had been eliminated during the 2012-23 financial year.

He said the responsibility for the defined contribution scheme rested with the RSM Tenon Ltd trading company which Baker Tilly was proposing to buy. 

The RSM Tenon group also maintained a small defined benefit scheme, which does fall into the insolvency process. It had a deficit in June 2012 of £279,000.

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that a defined benefit pension scheme cannot rank above other unsecured creditors in an insolvency.

That leaves banks first in the creditors' queue, and in its statement last week RSM Tenon said:  "The terms of the sale agreement mean that Lloyds will not recover its secured debt in full." 

Administrator Deloittes agreed a pre-pack sale of RSM Tenon's trading businesses to  Baker Tilly, whose partners are due to approve the deal next week.

This article, based on new information from Baker Tilly, is an updated version of one that appeared previously. We are happy to clarify the details.