PPE Medpro net assets fall to £666k as government seeks £134m claim

The company at the centre of a high-profile pandemic procurement dispute, PPE Medpro Ltd, has just £666,025 in net assets after spending roughly £4.2 million defending a government lawsuit that seeks about £134 million, its latest accounts show. The Department of Health and Social Care brought the claim in 2022, alleging 25 million surgical gowns supplied in 2020 were unsuitable for NHS use because they were not sterile. A judge heard four weeks of evidence in July and a ruling is pending.

PPE Medpro, incorporated in May 2020, won more than £200 million in contracts for gowns and face masks through a fast-track procurement route. Government lawyers told the court they were entitled to recover the roughly £122 million paid for the gowns, plus further transport and storage costs. The company’s accounts refer to a formal claim for £133,577,920.20 plus interest and state PPE Medpro disputes that claim, has served a defence and counterclaim, and believes it has a sound defence based on legal advice.

Accounts for the year to the end of July show the company held about £541,000 of investments and was owed £1.2 million, with debts of £1.1 million, leaving net assets of £666,025, down...