Bill Dawson and Dan Butters, partners at Deloitte, the business advisory firm, have today been appointed Joint Administrators to Daniel Contractors Limited and Land and Marine Project Engineering Limited.

The news comes after speculation in recent weeks about the company’s financial woes.

Daniel Contractors Limited operates in the construction and civil engineering sector and the main contracts are for utility works. It is particularly prominent in the water sector, where it has contracts with United Utilities, Welsh Water and Bristol Water.

Daniel Contractors’ problems are said to stem from water work where it is struggling with tight margins.

Land & Marine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daniel Contractors and it operates within the construction sector with a wide business portfolio that includes energy, power and process plant, storage tanks, pipelines and marine business.

The Administrators intend to continue to trade two of the three main contracts within Daniel Contractors with a view to agreeing a transfer of the business and employees.  Deloitte understands that the counterparty of the third contract has made arrangements to transfer the related business and employees to a third party.

A transfer of these contracts would safeguard 990 jobs and also ensures that these contracts are able to continue to operate with minimal interruption. Daniel currently employs 1,449 people

The Joint Administrators have received several expressions of interest for Land & Marine Project Engineering and are currently considering the available options.

Bill Dawson, Joint Administrator and partner in Deloitte’s Restructuring Services team, comments: “We are in discussions with the key stakeholders and interested parties of the group in an attempt to sell all or parts of the businesses and we will be briefing the employees about the situation.”