Demolition firm hoping to strike deal on payment proposals

A planned meeting of creditors of demolition contractor Squibb Group to decide whether to accept a Company Voluntary Arrangement has been pulled for a second time.

The meeting was due to have been held on 9 November before being switched to yesterday (21 November).

But in a letter, seen by Building, sent out to creditors on Monday by financial advisory firm Begbies Traynor, recipients are told “that pursuant to instruction received from the directors, they have withdrawn the CVA proposal”.

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Squibb has been in business since 1948

It added: “As such, the meeting on 21 November is cancelled and no attendance will be required.”

No explanation for why the CVA proposal, which governs how a company’s debts will be paid and in what proportions, has been withdrawn was given in the letter.

Squibb, which has been contacted for comment, has been going since 1948 and in its last set of results filed at Companies House, the firm saw turnover rise 5% to £32.9m in the year to January 2022. Income at its demolition business rose 6.5% to £31m.

Squibb was one of 10 firms fined a total of £60m in March by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for its involvement in the sector’s bid-rigging scandal.

The CMA cleared it of making so-called ‘compensation payments’, having initially been found guilty of doing so, with Squibb hit with a £2m fine.

Squibb is appealing the fine because, it said, the penalty was “disproportionate when seen in the context of the wider investigation and the other infringements discovered as part of the CMA investigation”.