[2] Its fall also brought down its parent company British and Commonwealth Holdings,[3] a financial services firm which had acquired it for £434 million in 1988.
These terms made Atlantic vulnerable to large liabilities incurred if invoked which were often not covered by the value of the equipment itself.
[7] While its American arm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 5 July 1990,[8] the British firm had been placed in administration with PricewaterhouseCoopers on 18 April.
[10] A report into the failure of British and Commonwealth was set up by the Department of Trade and Industry and headed by Eben Hamilton QC and James Alexander Scott, an accountant.
After the report's release, three former directors of Atlantic (David Austin McCormick, Nicholas Scott and Sien Yen Cheng Kai On) faced disqualification at the behest of Michael Heseltine, then President of the Board of Trade.