(A colourful phrase involving a London-based literary detective with a penchant for violins and deerstalker hats springs to mind.)

They believe that pre-pack... sorry, SIP 16-compliant sales, are in many instances the best way to maximise returns for creditors and preserve the maximum number of jobs.

In truth, in many instances they’re probably right on both counts. And selling a business via a pre-pack also minimises the impact on customers, therefore making it less likely they find alternative suppliers or suffer an interruption of service. So that’s a third group that, by-and-large, would have no issue with a common-or-garden pre-pack.

However, there’s one group that will always have a massive issue with pre-packs: their competitors.

And it doesn’t matter how the IPs rephrase the activity, that will, understandably, never change. After all, we’re in an industry that can easily absorb the collapse of even the largest players (it’s been a while, but think Polestar).

So, in a tough market where you’re constantly battling to win work at a sustainable margin – and, whisper it, make a respectable profit – there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing a rival ditch its debt and reduce its cost-base literally overnight.

But it is what it is. Pre-packs, whatever we call them, are here to stay and, genuinely, not all pre-packs are the same – at one end of the scale they can be marketed properly and be the result of an otherwise solvent business being blighted by something beyond their control.

And then of course, at the opposite end of the spectrum there are ‘SIP 16-compliant connected-party sales’. AKA ‘phoenixes’.

Good luck to anyone that tries to put a positive spin of justification on those. I’m reasonable man, but even I have limits.