15 July 2009

Bruce Cartwright and Graham Frost of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Scotland were appointed as Joint Administrators to Picsel Group Limited and Picsel Technologies Limited (Picsel) on 15 July 2009, companies owned by millionaire Scottish businessman Imran Khand. The company, which last year won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, employs over 70 staff at its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland and in offices throughout Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia and the US. The administration of Picsel was triggered by cash flow crisis.

Khand has been embroiled in the sleaze row over funding of the Labour Party. He was revealed as being the main funder of 'Muslim Friends of Labour' which was reported by 'The Times' newspaper as making a donation to the Labour Party of £300,000 in late 2007. An investigation is currently underway.

About Picsel

Picsel was established in 1998. A mobile solutions provider, Picsel’s pioneering software brings content on mobiles to life regardless of screen size, platform or network. The Company’s software can be found on over 250 million devices worldwide with leading customer brands including Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Sharp.

Graham Frost, joint administrator and director in PwC’s Business Recovery Services team in Scotland, said: “The Group has grown successfully over the last 10 years and is well regarded by its customers. Unfortunately, in this economic climate, it has proved harder to secure sequential contracts and as a result the Group’s income stream has stalled."

“Our immediate focus will be to review the business and create a new cost and funding structure. We believe this presents an opportunity for an industry player to acquire a business that is strategically important both in terms of technological expertise and creativity.

“With the support of key customers, we hope to trade the business for a period of time whilst a buyer is sought.”

On 17 July 2009, Khand was removed as CEO of Picsel Technologies Ltd by the administrators, Pricewaterhouse Coopers although he remains as CEO of the shell company Picsel (Research) Ltd which is thought to own the patents developed by Picsel Technologies Ltd.

About Imran Khand

Imran Khand was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Picsel Technologies, a company that creates mobile software. He is also the Chairman of Jabbar Group & Intermedical Holdings, which deals in a wide range of business activities including technology, architecture, master planning, city development, corporate and retail travel, human resource management, media, leisure and international property investment.

Khand established two successful technology companies prior to co-founding Picsel in 1998. Before that, Imran led a Scottish Government initiative for the development and training of young people, and was actively involved in a number of other government and community joint ventures. Khand has a degree in Computer Science from Paisley University.

Imran has maintained a keen interest in the charitable sector, which has led to the creation of a network of hospitals and universities in the Indian sub-continent, education development in China, and a series of UK-based community projects which have been designed to target underprivileged sectors of society, with particular interest in young people, the elderly, orphanages and women's centre support in Tanzania and Ghana. He is also involved in funding a number of other research enterprises.