The liquidator of McKever Hotels Limited, part of controversial property developer Alistair McKever's Glasgow-based empire, is to examine the transaction that saw its hotels transferred to another company within the same group.
Anne Buchanan, corporate recovery partner at accountant PKF, has been appointed interim liquidator of McKever Hotels after HM Revenue & Customs sought to have it wound up to recover a disputed tax bill.
The group continues to operate a 15-strong hotel chain stretching across northern England and Scotland using the McKever Hotels brand.
Buchanan told The Herald: "What has happened is that the company's assets have been bought by another company, which unfortunately seems to trading under the same name.
"I have no remit over the trading situation of the new company. But as liquidator I will need to look at the transaction."
She said she is meeting with the directors of the company next week.
A spokesman for McKever Group said: "We are aware that the liquidator is looking at the transaction between the two companies.
"We are fully co-operating with her and confident that matters were properly dealt with."
Mr McKever, who has attracted controversy in the past for the homeless hostels he also runs, is the sole director of McKever Hotels Limited. He is also the sole director of McKever 99, which bought the hotels.
Both are owned by McKever Group of which he is the sole shareholder.
Buchanan was appointed liquidator of McKever Hotels Limited after HMRC presented a petition to Glasgow Sheriff Court demanding the winding-up of the company.
Some 15 hotels across Scotland and northern England are listed on the McKever Hotels website although some are operated for the group by sister company Dark Star.
Jeanette Moonie, director of sales and marketing at McKever Group, said: "McKever Hotels is not trading and has not been trading since May 2007. The hotels we are operating are operating under McKever 99."
She added that McKever himself was McKever Hotels Limited's biggest creditor.
"Ali is one and the Inland Revenue is the other. Ali is the biggest creditor."
She said that McKever Group disputed the figure HMRC said is owed it in tax.
She added: "There is nothing sinister about it. We are working with them but there is a dispute over the figure."
A meeting of creditors is to be held in PKF's Glasgow office on June 4.
The McKever Group's hotels are located between Aberdeen and Newcastle. The £2m Gales Hotel in Gretna was added to its portfolio last year.
Last year Mr McKever announced the closure of homeless hostel the Parkview Hotel in Glasgow's Queen Park, which had attracted long-running opposition from some local residents who said it was bringing crime into the area. He still runs two other bed and breakfast hotels for the homeless in the city.
The most recent accounts for McKever Group show the hostel business, Access Accommodation, is the most profitable part of his operation.
It made a profit of £102,081 in the year to December 2007. However, McKever Hotels made a retained loss of £283,777.
Retained losses can be the result of trading losses or can arise where companies pay out more in dividends in a year than they have earned.
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