Creditors of collapsed lingerie specialist La Senza have missed out on around £2m after a court ruled that 15 lorry loads of underwear belonged to La Senza’s freight company rather than to administrator KPMG.

KPMG lost a court battle about who had the rights to sell on a lingerie cargo which was already being shipped from Asia when the lingerie chain fell into administration earlier this year.

Part of the shipment is still en route to the UK but the majority of it is now at Essex’s Tilbury Docks and La Senza’s freight forwarding company Uniserve has won the rights to keep it.

La Senza was sold to the UK division of Middle Eastern trading house Alshaya on January 9 following a pre-pack administration. Alshaya acquired 60 of La Senza’s 144 stores.

The retailer owed £18.8m to suppliers and £7m to Revenues & Customs and other public bodies when it fell into administration.