Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, may have acquired a certain skill at banking dividends from her father’s IT consultancy Infosys – £12m over the past year, conveniently overlooking the fact the company is still operating in Russia – but, when it comes to making money on her own account, she finds it a lot more challenging.
Updated insolvency records show that Digme Fitness – part-run, and part-owned by the chancellor’s wife – was £15.1m in the red when it went under, liquidators so far identifying £68,425 in assets to pay towards the bills – with £50,001 coming from a sale of assets to a company co-managed by Digme founder Caoimhe Bamber.
Unsecured creditors have been left £3,237,538 out of pocket, floating-charge holders £2,654,817 and shareholders nursing losses of £9.2m. Murthy held a 4.4% stake, believed to be worth £400,000. She joined the board in 2017 and remains a director.
Digme was placed in administration on February 16, with its collapse attributed to the “Covid-19 lockdowns and cash-flow shortages” by liquidators. At its height, it ran eight fitness studios, and was frequented by Sunak himself.
There are 80 or so firms identified among unsecured creditors. Individual claims range from £10 to £609,000. Local authorities, cleaners and utility firms are among those owed money, as are legal firms. HMRC is owed £415,000 for unpaid VAT and PAYE/NI, and employees are owed £31,886 in employee notice and redundancy pay. Just as well Murthy owns 0.93% of Infosys, with the market value of her stake worth around £734m.
