Landlords are angry that Clinton Cards made a £13m profit buying back the Birthdays business after closing unprofitable stores just a month ago, claims the British Property Federation. The figures came to light in Clinton's annual results last week which showed the discounted price at which Clinton was able to repurchase the company after putting Birthdays into administration at the expense of landlords. The BPB said it was a perfect example of a 'phoenix' administration where a firm is put into administration to avoid losses and get out of contracts before the profitable portion is bought back. Liz Peace, BPB chief executive, said: 'The issue is that insolvencies like this are a charter for failing business to walk away from legally binding contracts without paying a penny while everyone else - like the 750 people who lost their jobs - has to accept the consequences of bad business decisions.' Clinton, which has struggled in the face of online and supermarket competition, placed Birthdays into administration in May and repurchased 196 of the 323 stores a month later, with the loss of 750 jobs. Clinton said the one-off gain was booked on the income sheet in line with international accounting rules. The company said the £13.5m exceptional profit was the difference between the 'fair value' of the assets it bought from the administrators and the £2m to £2.5m it paid. Finance director Paul Salador said: 'Putting a company into administration is not something you do lightly. If we hadn't done that, eventually we were going to put the whole group under threat.'