Envelope specialist FK Group Ltd and two of its subsidiaries have staved off administration for up to an additional two weeks after filing new court notices.
Erroneous reports last month in trade, regional and national press outlets said that FK Group Ltd, FK Construction Ltd and FK Facades Ltd had already entered administration.
However, Construction News has learnt that the firms filed new notices of intention to appoint administrators (NOIs) on Monday (2 February) with the Manchester District Registry of the High Court.
NOIs, which precede the official appointment of administrators, were originally filed for the firms on 19 January, triggering a moratorium on creditor action for 10 business days.
This period had expired, prompting the new batch of NOIs.
The reasons for the new notices is unclear.
Construction News contacted the court and Bermans, the law firm representing the three companies, for further information.
Calls to FK Group’s main office number went unanswered.
Vernon Dennis, partner and head of business advisory at Howard Kennedy, said he was unable to comment on the specific reasons in the case, but said: “In practice, most commonly [NOIs allow] the proposed administrator time to rescue the business by means of a pre-pack sale to a new owner.
“If this is the proposed course, 10 working days is often insufficient time to conclude a valuation and marketing process, let alone a concluded sale. As a result, a further NOI may be required to buy more time.
“Properly advised, the NOI is an essential tool in effective business rescue.”
CN previously reported that Cheshire-based FK Group had been affected by industry headwinds such as building safety regime delays and an ongoing unspecified legal issue related to collapsed tier one contractor ISG.
FK Group, which has been in business since 1979, ranked fourth in the latest CN Specialists Index of building envelope firms.
Its most recent accounts showed it suffered a £5.9m pre-tax loss in the year to 31 March 2024, after turnover dropped by 23 per cent to £100.6m.
In the same period, FK Construction – its main contracting division – reported a pre-tax loss of £7.5m after its turnover halved and it booked £5.5m of exceptional items related to the legal dispute with ISG.
FK Facades, which provides curtain walling and rainscreen solutions, reported a pre-tax profit of £1.2m on a turnover of £57.2m in the same period.
All three firms should have filed their 2024/25 accounts by 31 December last year, but to date they have failed to do so.
Two other firms in the FK group – building remediation contractor FK Resolv and fabrications specialist Premo – have not filed an NOI.
Read More
Ben Vogel