Administrator takes swipe at collapsed firm Henry’s record keeping

Administrators of collapsed London high-rise builder Henry Construction Projects have said it took four months to download the firm’s electronic records.

The £400m turnover firm sank into administration last June after weeks of speculation about the health of the contractor.

In an update, FRP Advisory said Henry’s electronic records were cloud based and totalled more than 15 terabytes. “The download of this data took four months to complete,” FRP said.

One terabyte is the equivalent of 1,000 gigabytes while it is estimated that 1TB could hold 1,000 copies of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

FRP also criticized Henry’s record keeping: “The company records, whilst expansive, were poorly maintained and incomplete.”

Henry collapsed owing dozens of firms a total of more than £43m with eight firms each owed more than £1m.

In its latest update, filed at Companies House earlier this month, FRP said it expected former staff, owed £100,000 in unpaid wages and holiday pay, to be repaid in full, adding “there may be sufficient funds available” to make a payment to unsecured creditors.

In its last set of accounts, Henry Construction Projects posted an improved turnover of £402m in the year to June 2021.

The figure was up 7% on the previous 12 months with pre-tax profit during the period up 8% to £14m.

As well as high-rise, the firm also carried out civils, groundworks and reinforced concrete work.