Recovering debts owed to collapsed mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist Michael J Lonsdale will be an “uphill battle”, its administrators have said.
So far, Jamie Taylor and Dominik Thiel-Czerwinke from Begbies Traynor have collected £577,300 from Michael J Lonsdale’s debtors, including £202,200 since their previous report in May.
But in a progress report published this Wednesday (6 November), they warned that most of the leftover money is now tied up in legal disputes.
“Our retained debt collection agents […] expect many of these will be an uphill battle to achieve a recovery,” they said.
In total, Begbies Traynor expects to recover between £1.1m and £3.7m from the firm’s debtors.
Much of the debt collected so far is from a successful claim the administrators made against insurance firms Aviva and Marsh Ltd, regarding condensation damage at the University College of the Arts in London in December 2022. Begbies Traynor has already received £267,000 from the two firms and is awaiting a further £33,000, the administrators’ report said.
Michael J Lonsdale went under last October. Its credit rating had deteriorated after intense material inflation – caused by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine – led to project delays.
The £191m-turnover contractor was one of the biggest M&E firms in the UK.
In their report, the administrators reiterated that they do not expect to be able to pay anything out to Michael J Lonsdale’s suppliers or subcontractors. They did not provide an updated figure on how much is owed, but in their previous report in May, they said the firm owed £65m to its supply chain and £1.8m to HMRC.
Michael J Lonsdale was one of the UK’s largest M&E specialists and the 77th biggest contractor in the UK, according to the CN100 2023 rankings. In recent years, the firm worked on major construction projects including 100 Bishopsgate and Battersea Power Station, both in London.
The firm was sold to an employee-owned trust in February 2020.
