Administrators for Readie have cut their realisation estimates by £1m and now expect to recover £2.9m at best.
The contractor went under in February 2024 owing £24.8m to its unsecured creditors, including £18.8m to its subcontractors, which are still expected to receive nothing.
In its latest progress report covering the six months to February 2026, administrators at Begbies Traynor said they had made no further progress in recovering debts owed to Readie.
However, since its collapse, almost £1m has been collected, and the administrators said work continues to secure further realisations.
They noted an HMRC tax refund of £5,022 in the latest six-month period.
The administrators added that “total recoveries are anticipated to be in the region of between £2.9m to £545k on both best and worst case scenarios”, with the collection period expected to last until the fourth quarter of 2028.
Previously, the administrators said they expected to collect between £3.9m and £1.5m in the best and worst case scenarios.
In January the administrators extended the process to settle the £421m-turnover firm’s affairs to February 2029 due to the outstanding realisations.
The administration had been set to end in February following a previous year-long extension agreed in November 2024.
In line with their previous progress reports, the administrators again said there would likely be “insufficient funds available to enable a dividend to be paid to unsecured creditors”.
Readies’ ex-employees received a full payout for the £494,400 they were owed in wage arrears, salary and holiday pay as preferential creditors.
But they are also still owed £1.2m as unsecured creditors relating to redundancy and notice pay, which are not covered under the preferential creditor claim.
The Romford-based contractor – owned by an employee ownership trust since March 2021 – specialised in industrial buildings. It employed 260 staff in its final year in business.
It cited a number of reasons for its demise, including inflation, costs on fixed-price contracts, two mechanical and electrical subcontractors going under and increased difficulty in obtaining trade credit insurance and bond sureties.
Before its collapse, the firm ranked 55th in the CN100 2023 table of top UK contractors after its revenue rose 22 per cent to £421.1m in the year to 31 March 2023.