The report, filed at Companies House on 4 December by joint administrators Carl Jackson and Paul Goddard of Quantuma, revealed a surplus from the recovery of Advent's outstanding invoices.

Unsecured creditors, which had a total estimated liability of £1.6m, of which claims for £1.5m have been received, have a dividend prospect of some 5p-10p in the £1 according to the report.

Advent's indebtedness to its invoice discounter Bibby Financial Services, which totalled £931,000, was settled in full from the financed debtor ledger; Bibby has since assisted in collecting the remainder of the ledger for a commission of 15% of recoveries.

This has resulted in a surplus of £224,000 being returned to the administrators and a residual debtor ledger of £130,000 being passed to debt collectors Direct Legal Collections to pursue for a fee of 5%-10%.

According to the report, the factored book debts are currently estimated to realise £286,090.

The administrators also recovered £50,000 from the sale of the £8m-turnover commercial printer's business and assets to ReSolve Capital, which was paid in full on completion.

There was no equity in the company's printing machinery that could be released via its sale and it is understood that the majority of the finance agreements in relation to these assets were novated to DMA Print.

HMRC was owed £281,356 although this was partially offset by net VAT due to the company of £234,773; the administrators costs totalled £63,154 for the period from 1 May to 31 October, of which £61,000 had been drawn.

The report also reveals that a proposed CVA was put forward following the approval of the joint administrators' proposals by a third party who had taken assignments representing approx 30% of total creditor claims against the company.

The proposal would have been funded by the third party placing a new business into the company's shell and using the residual assets within the administration to fund its working capital. Contributions to the CVA fund would then be made out of the profits for the benefit of creditors.

The proposal was ultimately withdrawn following discussions "over an extended period of time" between the joint administrators and the third party.

Advent Digital Imaging and DMA Print were sold to Thames Group on 31 October.