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There are still insufficient funds to pay creditors for Michael J Lonsdale, administrators for the collapsed mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist said.
In their third progress report since being appointed in October 2023, Jamie Taylor and Dominik Thiel-Czerwinke from Begbies Traynor said they had clawed back £672,578 from Lonsdale’s debtors to date.
However, this amount is only £54,852 higher than in their previous report last November.
“There are unlikely to be sufficient funds for a dividend to be paid to HM Revenue & Customs as secondary preferential creditor,” the administrators said.
They also reiterated that there will be “insufficient funds” available to pay unsecured creditors.
The administrators said last November that recovering debts owed to Lonsdale will be an “uphill battle”.
And in their first progress report last May, they announced that under £600,000 of the £120m owed by the M&E specialist was unlikely to be paid out.
Among this total is £65m owed to its supply chain, £2.9m owed to employees and £1.8m to HMRC.
The latest report mentioned that just £33,164 had been paid to these secondary and unsecured creditors since last November, and £402,418 in total since the administration began.
Lonsdale was one of the UK’s largest M&E specialists and the 77th biggest contractor in the UK, according to the CN100 2023 rankings.
It posted turnover of £191m in its most recent accounts for the 12 months to 30 September 2022, making a £2.5m pre-tax profit.
In recent years, the firm – which became an employee-ownership trust in February 2020 – worked on major construction jobs in London such as 100 Bishopsgate and Battersea Power Station.
Its administration period is due to end on 1 October this year, according to the latest Begbies Traynor progress report.
Lonsdale will be dissolved as a company once the process is completed, they added.
