(Bloomberg) -- Creditors and owners of a collapsed energy retailer are set to receive payouts worth tens of millions of pounds after a London judge approved a restructuring plan.

Payments will come from People’s Energy Supply Ltd.’s “significant assets,” that include about £286 million ($358 million) from energy hedging contracts. The company will “surprisingly but not uniquely” clear all debts in the “reasonably near future,” Daniel Bayfield, a lawyer representing the administrator for People’s Energy, said in court on Thursday.

The firm’s September 2021 collapse came as dozens of energy suppliers in the UK disintegrated as electricity and natural gas prices rose to record highs after Russia curtailed supply to Europe. Efforts to pass those higher costs to customers were limited by a regulator-set price cap.

After filing for insolvency some defunct companies, including People’s Energy, still held value in the contracts for energy they bought in advance — known as hedges — but never delivered. The firm’s administrators then monetized those hedges, creating a cash surplus at the energy supply company.

The judge also agreed to set a five month deadline for claims over a data breach that hit about 300,000 customers in 2020.

The company was set up with crowd funded cash and a pledge to tackle fuel poverty in Britain. Four years later, it failed. Even so, founders David Pike and Karin Sode could receive as much as £50 million.

The judge asked the administrator’s lawyers why the amount Pike and Sode would get were not disclosed. The shareholders will be paid only after debts of all creditors are cleared, Bayfield said. 

Pike and Sode own 25% stake in the company through People’s Energy Company, which will be liable for the customer claims that can range from £500 to £1,500 each, according to the lawyer. People’s Energy Community Interest Company, formed for charity projects, owns the remaining 75% shares. 

--With assistance from Lucca de Paoli.

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