A major Irish construction company has been placed in examinership, in the wake of the collapse of UK building firm Carillion.
The Sammon Group had been involved with Carillion in a contract to build five schools and an institute of education.
The High Court today appointed Grant Thornton as interim examiner to the Sammon Group.
The company says it will continue to trade as usual, and hopes to work its way out of its current difficulties.
Carillion
Sammon was subcontracted to build the six facilities on behalf of Carillion which in turn was handed the contracts under a public private partnership with the State.
The massive UK construction firm employed around 43,000 people all around the world before its collapse in January under a mountain of debt.
The company reportedly owed some £1.3bn (€1.5bn) with a pension deficit estimated at up to £2.6bn (€3bn).
Schools
The Irish projects subcontracted to Sammon all came to a stop after the Carillion collapse, with a retendering process underway to get the projects finished.
In a statement this evening, the Sammon Contracting Group said: “It is very regrettable that we have had to seek an Examinership but we are confident that this will provide a framework in which the company will be able to continue its business in the future.”
It said it will “continue to trade as usual during the period of Examinership” and thanked its creditors, clients and employees for their patience and understanding “as we set about our business recovery programme.”
Examinership
It said the Carillion collapse sent “repercussions across the construction sector.”
Following the collapse the company entered talks with all stakeholders involved in the contract for the six education facilities however, “despite reaching an agreement in principle in January, the deal was rejected by the funders of the project and Sammon was instructed to withdraw from the sites involved.”
The company said it has a strong pipeline of work in progress, is involved in tendering for new business and is “confident that it can restructure its business and emerge from the Examinership process.”
