Killby & Gayford creditors to be left £34m out of pocket

Hundreds of Killby & Gayford creditors are likely to be left £34m out of pocket, according to a creditors report by administrator BDO.

Among the firms chasing unpaid contracts are Laing O’Rourke subsidiary Crown House (£271,440), Travis Perkins (£163,349) and Construction Skills (£141,820).

The firm’s collapse left trade creditors with a total of £10.2m unpaid contracts, the largest of which was £321,076 owed to security firm Niscayath Ltd (for a full list see document attached, right)

Another major loser from the collapse is venture capital firm Growth Capital Partners - which took a majority stake in Killby & Gayford in 2007 - and is owed £6.1m.

Killby & Gayford chief executive Chris Chivers hailed GCP’s investment at the time of the buy-out and is quoted on GCP’s website as saying: “They’ve demonstrated a real understanding of our business.”

BDO estimates it will only be able to realise the value of £1.4m of the company’s £35.3m assets that were on the books at the time of its collapse.

Among the assets that will be almost completely written off are £5.7m owed for work in progress - only £305,500 of which is set to be realised - and £2.3m of unpaid retentions.

The remaining debts include £4m owed in redundancy and notice to the 260-strong workforce and £1.6m owed to Bank of Scotland.

Michael Hanley, company secretary of not-for-profit safety consultant London Building Safety Group – which is owed £82,592 by Killby & Gayford – said “everyone was surprised” by the company’s collapse.

Hanley said he had worked with Killby & Gayford for nearly 30 years and had had to put his own money into his company to make up for the shortfall.

He said he had been advised by the administrator that there was “no chance” of the bill being paid, which is equivalent to 12% of his firm’s annual turnover.

Killby & Gayford management estimates it will only be able to realise the value of £1.4m of the company’s £35.3m assets that were on the books at the time of its collapse.

The contractor went under while working on site on at least £29m worth of construction projects, including the UK’s first centre for black history and culture in Brixton, London.

The 150-year-old contractor was famous for working on prestigious projects, including one at Number 10 Downing Street.