Supply chain creditors received just 3 per cent of what they were owed after the collapse of Dundee-based contractor McGill & Co, administrators have said in their final report.
McGill owed unsecured creditors £14.3m when it went under in February 2019, including £9.7m to its supply chain.
But in their final progress report in a seven-year process, administrators Geoffrey Jacobs and Alistair McAlinden from Interpath said they could only pay out £248,773 to supply chain creditors.
This was part of an overall payout of £270,210 (or 1.89p in the pound) to unsecured creditors, they said.
Jacobs and McAlinden said they raised £1.4m from the sale of the collapsed firm’s property – slightly more than the £1.3m valuation included in the statement of affairs.
A further £159,699 was recovered from the sale of plant and machinery and the administrators recouped £3.2m in book debts.
They added that McGill’s secured creditor Santander had a “shortfall on its indebtedness”, as they could only distribute £2.4m of the £2.7m owed to the bank.
Preferential creditors, including employees, received full payment of the £342,473 they were owed.
The administrators said the firm will be dissolved within three months of their final report.
McGill & Co was established in 1981 as a specialist building contractor serving clients in the Scottish residential, commercial and industrial sectors.
It operated from its Dundee headquarters as well as offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The firm had five divisions: mechanical and electrical; facilities management; social housing; private residential; and fibre and wireless.
It collapsed following what administrators from KPMG’s restructuring practice (later acquired by Interpath) described as “challenging trading conditions”, with disputes and payment delays on “significant contracts”.
Attempts to secure funding proved fruitless, leading to the appointment of administrators.
Turnover fell from £61.8m to £41.8m in the firm’s final set of full-year accounts for the 12 months to 30 September 2017, although pre-tax profit tripled from £249,745 to £772,218.
At the time, directors said the order book was strong and highlighted the firm’s first foray into the private residential market.
All but 55 of McGill’s 429 staff were made redundant and not transferred to United Capital Investments, owned by Dundee businessman Graeme Carling, who bought McGill out of administration in a pre-pack deal.
But the new firm, trading as McGill Facilities Management, itself collapsed in August 2022 and went into liquidation last November.
