O’Keefe supply chain to get ‘less than 1p in the pound’

Administrators for collapsed civils contractor O’Keefe Construction expect the firm’s creditors to come away almost empty-handed.

Two-and-a-half years after O’Keefe collapsed, administrators from RSM Restructuring warned that they expected the firm’s supply chain and subcontractors to get a small fraction of the millions owed to them.

Unsecured creditors, which are owed £35.1m, are set to receive “less than 1p in the pound” when they finally get a payout, RSM said in its latest administration update last Wednesday (12 February).

That suggests creditors in Kent-based O’Keefe’s supply chain will get a combined total of less than £350,000.

In their report, the administrators said they had attempted over the past six months to recoup more than £527,005 worth of retentions, but none had been forthcoming.

Last year, they said they had recouped just over £24,000 of retentions owed.

Many firms that owed retentions to O’Keefe resisted the administrators’ demands.

“Most debtors have responded saying that the costs of any remedial works have superseded the amounts payable and therefore no monies are owed,” RSM said.

“No further retention monies have been recovered in the current period.”

Despite the pushback, RSM said it would continue to work with O’Keefe’s director on the retentions owed and would keep the firm’s creditors updated.

Unsecured creditors must wait to get paid, though, as RSM is still awaiting the final claim from HMRC – a secondary preferential creditor.

After it went under, having defaulted on a company voluntary agreement, O’Keefe’s assets were sold to Byrne Group in July 2022.

Some 150 staff were transferred over to the  concrete-frame specialist after it paid about £10m for O’Keefe.

Byrne subsequently set up two companies: O’Keefe Demolition (Byrne Group) Ltd and O’Keefe Construction (Byrne Group) Ltd.

O’Keefe’s most recent accounts, covering the 18 months to 30 November 2021, revealed a pre-tax loss of £12.7m from turnover of £69m.

According to Companies House, its parent firm, Sevenoaks-based Saint Fortchern Ltd, remains active. A compulsory strike-off action against it was discontinued last October.