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Administration · 8 January 2024

Stewart Milne Group

Main contractor · Aberdeen · Scotland · Part of Stewart Milne

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What happened

STEWART MILNE GROUP LIMITED (company number SC057709), incorporated in 1975, entered administration on 8 January 2024. Its status at Companies House is now: administration.

Why it failed

Rising costs and falling housebuyer demand hurt trading; facing Bank of Scotland debt maturities, sale processes produced no deliverable deal and the group could not meet its debts.

  • Main reason: Sale or investment failed
  • Funding withdrawn
  • Market downturn
  • Cost inflation

Our summary of the reasons given in the administrators' proposals. These record the administrators' and directors' account of what happened.

An administrator, a licensed insolvency practitioner, takes control of the company to try to rescue it, sell the business or get a better result for creditors than a liquidation.

Timeline

The last accounts and payment report before the failure, then what happened, with the time between each.

  1. 31 October 2022

    Last accounts filed were made up to this date

    12 months later

  2. 31 October 2023

    Last payment practices report ends: average 59 days to pay, 49% of invoices not paid to agreed terms

    3 months later

  3. 8 January 2024

    Administration started

AccountsPayment reportInsolvency

Before it failed

Key figures

Turnover in its last accounts, year to Oct 2022
£183.5m
Accounts at Companies House
Profit before tax, year to Oct 2022
£16.6m
Accounts at Companies House
Staff, year to Oct 2022
486
Accounts at Companies House
Net liabilities, year to Oct 2022
£47.6m
Accounts at Companies House
Average days to pay suppliers, 1 May 2023 to 31 October 2023
59 days
43% paid after 60 days, 49% not paid to agreed terms
Its last payment practices report
Owed to unsecured creditors (estimated), Administrators' proposals for Stewart Milne Group and its subsidiaries
£153.9m
about 1,375 creditors. HMRC owed £1.8m. a further £108.0m owed to its lenders. Expected return to unsecured creditors: about 0p in the pound
Administrators' proposals for Stewart Milne Group and its subsidiaries

The last accounts filed were group accounts made up to 31 October 2022, 14 months before it went into administration.

The full filing history, including any late filings, charges and director changes, is on Companies House.

Lessons learned report

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