Creditors of collapsed construction group Dawnus are owed around £80m, it can be revealed.
While a creditors report is still being compiled by the joint administrators from professional advisory firm Grant Thornton in Alistair Wardell, Matthew Richards and Philip Stephenson, it is understood that the Swansea group has creditors totalling 1,500 in number.
The loss-making £118m turnover business was put into administration by its directors in February, resulting in the loss of 700 direct jobs.
At the time Dawnus Construction was working on 44 construction sites across the UK, including work on the redevelopment of the Kingsway in the centre of Swansea.
The rise and fall of Dawnus: How the multi-million pound Swansea company collapsed
Its liabilities include £39m to unsecured trade creditors, the amounts of which owed range from £10 up to £780,000.
Other unsecured creditors include HMRC to the tune of around £3m, employee related amounting to £5m and inter company debt across the group of around £21m.
Dawnus contractors around Wales owed tens of thousands of pounds
The employee creditor figure includes pension and redundancy related payments.
The group consisted of a number of trading firms, while its international businesses didn't enter administration.
The total unsecured creditor position is around £70m.
The business also owes secured creditors around £10m. They include HSBC, Lloyds Bank and the Welsh Government.
In terms of priority Lloyds Bank, which has a charge on Dawnus' Swansea head office building, has seniority.
The Welsh Government is owned £1.5m. Since 2016 it had invested £3.5m into the company to support its growth plans. Before Dawnus was put into administration, the Welsh Government had received back from the construction firm £2m.
Troubled construction firm Dawnus' seven-figure debt to the Welsh Government
While Lloyds is expected to be repaid in full, it is still to be determined what amount the other secured creditors will receive.
The Welsh Government said it is confident of being reimbursed.
Following the administration it said: "We've received £2m of the loan back already, and are confident that the terms of the loan will see outstanding moneys repaid in due course."
There is some protection for unsecured creditors through a so called prescribed part. However, in the best case scenario this would only give a maximum £600,000 redistribution, based on a calculation of asset sales.
For unsecured creditors (not including inter company debt), this would at best give around a 1p in the £1 return.
The Llanelli family-owned construction firm that has raised millions to expand
The joint administrators are expected to complete the creditors report later this week.
