STEWART Milne Group has entered administration with over 200 employees being made redundant.
Insolvency practitioners from Teneo Financial Advisory Limited have been appointed as joint administrators of the north east of Scotland-based housebuilder and six of its subsidiaries.
A statement from the administrators said the directors explored ‘multiple’ options to secure the future of the business, including running sale processes. Unfortunately, this did not result in a transaction and other options to restructure the group were described as ‘ultimately not viable’.
The decision was therefore taken to place certain group companies into administration, including each of the Stewart Milne companies that operate active development sites in Scotland.
The active development sites in north west England are held by Stewart Milne Homes North West England (Developments) Limited, which has a separate funding structure and has not been placed into administration with the group companies on 8 January. The strategy is being discussed with Homes England and there should be more clarity by the end of the week.
The joint administrators revealed they will focus on realising the group’s assets and pursuing an orderly wind down of the business retaining 54 employees to assist with managing this process. An additional 58 employees aligned with the operations of Stewart Milne Homes North West England (Developments) Limited have been retained.
However, 217 roles have been made redundant. The administrators are communicating with all employees affected and working with the Redundancy Payments Service to support employees in recovering any statutory entitlements to which they may be entitled.
Adele MacLeod of Teneo said, “The downturn in the UK housing market combined with an extensive sales process not resulting in any viable offers has ultimately led to the need for the directors to place Stewart Milne Group Limited and some of its subsidiaries into administration, regretfully with some immediate redundancies. We continue to assess all the options in respect of the group’s Scottish development sites and encourage any party with an interest to get in touch.”
