Austin-Smith:Lord owes staff £850,000

The full list of creditors to financially struggling architect Austin-Smith:Lord has been revealed showing the firm owes staff over £850,000.

Austin-Smith:Lord (ASL) was thrown into financial turmoil because of debts from the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage Authority for work on its cultural quarter. The debt peaked at £11.3m in November but ASL has since received payments totalling £3.15m.

The firm has laid off 53 people directly connected with the project since it ran into difficulty and further 30 in a restructuring of its regional operations in the UK.

Last week ASL entered into a company voluntary agreement (CVA) with its creditors to allow it to keep trading while trying to recover the money from the client in Abu Dhabi.

The minutes of the meeting on the CVA show that staff are owed £843,000, but the final figure will be much higher because a number of staff did not vote on the agreement and are not contained in the minutes of the meeting.

Creditors are expected to receive between 82% and 99% of their money back.

Partner Neil Chapman said he was confident ASL would be paid by the Abu Dhabi client and able to settle with its creditors in full. “We have had no indication at all from the client that there will be any blockage in the payment coming through,” he said.

A number of Britain’s biggest construction firms are owed money. The latest figures show consultant Arup and project manger Buro Four, which both worked on the stalled Abu Dhabi project, are the first and second largest creditors owed £1.4m and £700,000 respectively.

HM Revenue and Customs is the third largest creditor to the firm and is owed £535,616.

Engineering consultant Mott MacDonald is owed £143,019 and consultant Mouchel is owed £156,015.

Joining them on the list are engineer Buro Happold, which is owed £110,182, engineering consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff, which is owed £28,893 and designer Ramboll, which is owed £93,792.

Engineer Curtins Consulting is also owed £5,369.