Bradley Wiggins is disputing a one million pound claim by the liquidators of his companies but has agreed to offer a property worth over £600,000 as part of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to help pay back creditors and stave off bankruptcy.
According to Cyclingweekly and public records published online at Companies House in September, accountancy firm MHA Macintyre Hudson said they had increased the amount being claimed from Wiggins to £979,953.
A company called Wiggins Rights Limited, owned by Wiggins, his former wife Cath and his mother Linda, and used to “exploit Bradley Wiggins’s name and image rights”, went into voluntary liquidation in 2020 with debts of £650,000. Those debts have now risen to £979,953 “after reviewing the company’s books and records,” with the liquidators struggling to secure repayment of an overdrawn director’s loan account of £760,373.
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The creditors to Wiggins Rights Limited include the British tax office HMRC, which has submitted a claim for £313,447 and an unnamed list of 14 other creditors with claims totalling £749,223.
The ongoing liquidation is one of several financial issues the 2012 Tour de France winner is fighting. In October 2020, Wiggins liquidated Wiggins Rights Ltd and New Team Cycling Ltd, which owned and managed the Team Wiggins Continental team, with debts of £578,008, after an exchange of loans. Wiggins also liquidated another company called 101 Ride Limited.
The companies were wound up after the closure of Team Wiggins at the end of 2019. Wiggins rode for the Continental in the final two seasons of his career before the 2016 Olympics, where he won gold in the team pursuit as part of the Great Britain team. In recent years Wiggins has worked as a television pundit for Eurosport/GCN and a VIP guest at exclusive cycling holidays.
Wiggins is due to fire the starting pistol at next week's Gent Six, where his son is racing in the Under-23 event.
According to the documents published by Companies House, the British registrar of companies, Wiggins agreed to an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), with an offer to repay a significant part of the debt, using a property worth £600,695 as a primary asset.
The administrators report that they “sought to interview one of the company’s directors” but that “due to a lack of response” have instructed solicitors to issue formal correspondence. An interview was due to take place in late October. They have also instructed a law firm to value the “Bradley Wiggins”, “Wiggins” and “Wiggo” trademarks.
Cyclingweekly said a spokesperson for Bradley Wiggins said that he disputed the claim.
In December 2020 a spokesperson said that “Bradley's involvement in the companies was not day to day,” and that “this in no way affects Bradley's personal solvency.”
