Editing Court Line (section)

====Factors behind collapse====
In addition to the early-'70s [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]] and the [[Three-Day Week|three-day week]], there were other factors that had caused the collapse of the group of companies that included Court Line and Clarksons.

One of these factors was the parent company's precariously highly [[leverage (finance)|geared]] investment in the shipping and leisure industry sectors.

According to some insider reports at the time, Court Line Aviation was a viable business. However, a proposed [[management buyout]] was rejected as its [[liquidation value]] was needed to pay off the parent company's debts.

The [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]] final report into the Court Line collapse concludes:

<blockquote>"The short answer is that there was no single reason for the collapse, which was caused by a number of contributory factors. Court Line expanded rapidly in many directions, some of which were both logical and justifiable, others not. The overall management was throughout inadequate and it was in any event never supported by the necessary financial control. This meant that as Court Line expanded, it became progressively vulnerable to any substantial setback in any of its areas of activities. When a serious setback occurred, triggered off by the oil crisis of autumn 1973, it immediately affected the shipping, aviation, and leisure divisions. The group was so highly geared, so structured and having such inadequate financial control, that it might well have been brought down by a substantial reverse in any of its major activities. As it was the cumulative effect on all three divisions, when all the cash resources which would otherwise have been available had been invested unprofitably in the Caribbean, meant that the position progressively deteriorated and rendered the collapse in August 1974 unavoidable."</blockquote><ref name="end_of_the_line"/><ref>''Court Line Limited (Final Report)'', Department of Trade, HMSO, London, 1978</ref>