A County Durham-based structural steel supplier and installer is set to be liquidated next week, Construction News can reveal.
Intelligent Steel Solutions Ltd, which operates from a three-hectare site in Peterlee, provides cold-formed structural steel to construction projects.
Its website says its services include light gauge cold form structural steel, facade infill, load bearing structures and modular component supply.
A letter from insolvency practice 360 Insolvency sent to creditors last week and seen by CN said that the company was set to go into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 3 April due to its “financial position”.
Those owed money by Intelligent Steel have been given until the end of that date to lodge any objections to the process taking place. If 10 per cent of creditors object, an in-person meeting will be held to discuss next steps.
While operating from the North East, Intelligent Steel is headquartered at the Battersea, South London, office where Henley Construct, with whom it shares two directors, is based.
Last month CN revealed that the majority of staff at Henley had been placed on unpaid leave and put at risk of redundancy.
That move was blamed on “the unprecedented, combined impact of the aftermath of Brexit, Covid, rising costs and the onset of a recession”.
A number of Intelligent Steel staff were also placed on unpaid leave in early February.
Intelligent Steel’s turnover is too low to require it to publish full accounts. Its last published partial accounts, for the year to 31 December 2020, show that it owed creditors £2.9m, up from £1.8m the previous year.
At the time, the company had £67,444 in assets, the accounts stated, and it employed 30 people.
Intelligent Steel director Kashif Zamir Usmani was appointed as founding director of a company called BPHT Ltd, also registered to the same address as Henley Construct and Intelligent Steel, last August.
Earlier this month BPHT, which is registered with Companies House as a manufacturer of metal structures, changed its name to Intelligent Steel Ltd.
Another company registered to the same address in Battersea is Malikus Ltd, a construction machinery firm. Its directors are Kashif Zamir Usmani and Tariq Zamir Usmani – the directors of Intelligent Steel Solutions Ltd.
On 3 February this year, Malikus had its named changed at Companies House to Intelligent Steel Ltd. The name was changed back to Malikus on the day BPHT became Intelligent Steel Ltd.
CN approached Intelligent Steel Solutions to ask whether the business will continue to trade or if it had any other comment about the liquidation, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
360 Insolvency and Henley Construct were also contacted for comment on the issue.
Recent weeks have seen three North East contractors – Tolent, Metnor and All Saints – go under, as well as gigafactory client Britishvolt.
Alan Kelly, administrator at FRP Advisory, told CN this week that Metnor, whose insolvency process he is overseeing, and Tolent appeared to both be hit by their exposure to fixed-price contracts and bad debts, as well as the high cost of materials and labour.
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Ian Weinfass