BrewDog owed over half a billion pounds in debt to creditors, with an estimated £480m shortfall expected following its pre-pack sale to Tilray Brands, new documents have revealed.
The Scottish brewer and retailer had total book debts of £553.8m at the time of its sale to Tilray, with unsecured creditors in the UK owed nearly £400m and set to receive a payout of less than one pence in the pound from the plc.
Secured creditors including principal lender HSBC, meanwhile, are set to face a shortfall of around £85m.
Shareholders, including those who took part in BrewDog’s ‘Equity for Punks’ crowdfunding scheme, were “not anticipated to receive any return”, administrator AlixPartners wrote.
“On this basis, any shares essentially have no value,” it added.
The documents, filed to Companies House late last week and made public over the weekend, preceded the sale of BrewDog’s international operations in Australia and the US to Tilray.
The sale of these assets could lead to additional returns to BrewDog’s senior secured lender HSBC, AlixPartners wrote.
Meanwhile, BrewDog’s new owner Tilray is negotiating with a number of the business’ suppliers short-changed as a result of the administration process, The Grocer understands.
Read more: Who is BrewDog’s new owner Tilray Brands and can it revive ailing brewer’s fortunes?
Detailing the circumstances leading to BrewDog’s distressed sale to Tilray for an initial £33m last month, AlixPartners said the brewer had “faced continued pressures in the brewing and hospitality sectors”.
A review of the business in September 2025 considered various potential restructuring options as well as a going concern sales process run by Rothschild, which commenced in December 2025.
Three offers were received in January 2026, but none were deemed deliverable on a solvent basis.
With a going-concern sale considered impossible to execute, and BrewDog’s private equity partner TSG electing to withdraw further funding for the business, BrewDog instructed AlixPartners to commence an accelerated sales process on 10 February 2026.
The process resulted in six indicative offers being received. The offers were “progressed in parallel until it became clear that the offer from Tilray Brands UK would offer the best return to the creditors of the companies as a whole”, AlixPartners said.
The sale was therefore completed immediately upon the appointment of AlixPartners as administrator on 2 March 2026.
The sale price of £32.9m was comprised of £10.1m for intellectual property, £15m for plant and machinery £2m to freehold property, £950,000 to leasehold property, and £4.8m to stock.
At the date of administration, BrewDog co-founder James Watt owned 19.15% of the shares in the business and co-founder Martin Dickie owned 21.12%.
Watt was not named in the administration documents but is understood to have submitted an unsuccessful bid to buy back BrewDog last month.
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