Firm set up in 1966 set to formally appoint administrator RSM this week 

Three more Osborne businesses are set to go into administration, the firm has announced.

On Friday, it said that Geoffrey Osborne Ltd had filed a notice of intent to appoint an administrator and has now added Osborne Construction Ltd, Osborne Group Holdings and Osborne Homes Ltd have also filed the same notices.

The firm, set up by its eponymous founder in 1966, confirmed that restructuring specialist RSM has been working with the business in an attempt to keep it afloat.

osborne 1

Osborne carries out building work in London and the South-east

Building understands RSM has been involved for several months with a number of options looked at to keep the business going, including a CVA – where a company agrees a deal with creditors to pay back money owed over a certain timeframe.

But Osborne, which has a turnover of around £90m and employs close to 90 people, is set to formally go into administration this week with RSM handling the process.

Osborne has around eight live schemes and is understood to be speaking to rivals about novating some of those projects, although these will need sign-off from clients.

In a statement announcing its intention to appoint administrators, the firm said it had been hobbled by “residual losses on legacy projects [which] have undermined performance [and] which has impacted on the ability to win new work”.

It has pared back its business over the last two and a half years, including selling its civils, offsite and property maintenance arms, as part of a restructuring to focus on building work in London and the South-east.