Dozens of civil engineering firms and sub-contractors face losing hundreds of thousands of pounds as Gateshead-based contractor Tolent owed around £76m when it collapsed earlier this year.
Construction News analysed extensive accounts published by administrator Interpath Advisory for six companies in the Tolent group, while details about one final subsidiary are still yet to be published.
CN found that the Tolent companies have a total debt load of £107m, including £32m of intercompany loans. Collectively, the companies owe £4.2m to HMRC, as well as £4.6m to lender and secured creditor IGF.
The Tolent firms owe a further £67m to dozens of other companies, with £29m being owed to trade creditors – Tolent’s supply chain.
Tolent Construction Limited owes the most money, with £46.7m due to unsecured creditors which are not expected to recoup any of their losses, according to Interpath Advisory.
Tolent Living meanwhile owes unsecured creditors £16.6m; Tolent PLC, the group’s holding company, owes unsecured creditors £10.9m; Tolent Homes owes £7.9m; Tolent Solutions owes £7.5m; and Ravensworth Properties owes £8.6m.
Tolent Construction Limited owes 36 firms more than £100,000 each.
Subcontractors which are owed the most money include insurance broker Lockton Companies LLP (£856,000), a US-headquartered firm with an office in London; Technic Concrete Floors Ltd, a contractor based in Leigh (£740,000); Northumbria-based Premier Plant & Civils Engineering (£689,000); Oxford-based Donaldson Timber Systems (£675,000); and Durham-based civil engineer WYN Construction (£668,000).
Tolent Living owes 16 trade creditors over £100,000 each, including Durham-based renewable energy firm Clear Climate Limited (£695,000); Hartlepool-based N&T Civils Limited (£507,000) and Darwen-based insulation supplier ECO Giant Ltd (£492,000).
Durham disaster
Accounting documents published by Interpath Advisory show Tolent suffered major losses on a scheme in Durham which, combined with tightening credit conditions, led to the demise of the group.
The administrator said the troubled contract to build an £85m, mixed-use development at Milburngate in Durham had cost the firm “significant management time” and led to £10m in cost overruns.
“Whilst the construction of the site was substantially completed in 2022, the company experienced delays in final sign-off of the development which absorbed significant management time,” it said.
“In total, project costs in relation to Milburngate overran by approximately £10m and presented a significant strain on the group’s financial headroom/available cash.”
The contractor’s management looked to stem losses by selling off land and issuing a shareholder rights issue; however the firm began to experience tightening credit conditions, withdrawal of trade credit insurance and customers requiring cash-backed performance bonds.
Snow and excessive cold in mid-December also coincided with the Christmas shutdown and further strained margins and working capital.
Contract legacy
Interpath Advisory became involved with Tolent as a consultant in December 2022, and was later appointed as administrator to the group in February, when 313 staff were made redundant.
Gateshead-based Tolent was one of the largest regional contractors in the North East, with a revenue of £200m, and was the 67th largest practice in the UK, according to the CN100 ranking of the UK’s biggest contractors in 2022.
Tolent was working on 16 live contracts at the point of its collapse, including the Milburngate scheme. Administrators said “ it was not clear whether profit remained within the contracts”.
Interpath Advisory said it investigated whether ongoing contracts could be sold on.
However, buyers “ultimately did not attribute value to the interest in contracts that may be loss making” and could be terminated by the contract employer, it said.
The company’s workers and workload in Teesside were snapped by Brims Construction with the help of Tolent founder John Wood, with no money being paid to the administration apart from the £500,000 purchase of Tolent’s Teesside office.
In an exclusive interview with CN, Wood said the collapse of Tolent, which he founded in 1989, was “tragic” and added that work on Millburn Gate had gone “wildy wrong”.
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