by Kyle Molyneux | Thu 17 Aug 2023
Euro Auctions sells Henry Construction assets
Euro Auctions, working in partnership with FTP Advisory and Hilco Valuation Services, successfully conducted a sale of assets from Henry Construction Projects Ltd, following its administration in 2023.
David Hudson of FRP Advisory was appointed as the administrator of the company Henry Construction Projects Ltd on June 8th 2023, in one of the most significant construction sector liquidations of 2023. Euro Auctions, working in partnership with Hilco Valuation Services, Euro Auctions was appointed to organise a full appraisal of all assets, prior to a series of live and online disposal auctions.
Assets were disposed of in two sales. The first being an online sale on July 6th for equipment held in the Henry Construction yard located at Cranford, with additional equipment, from construction sites around central London transported to the live Leeds sale in early August 2023. The hammer total for all assets was £1.6 million which included Henry owned items in addition to machinery assets on third party finance, working with six independent funders.
With international registered bidders joining the initial Henry yard clearance auction, the top buying countries in order, were: United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Cyprus and United Arab Emirates. Buyers in percentage of the total sale were: United d Kingdom 78%, Europe 21% and Middle East the remainder of the sales.
Chris Osborne, the Euro Auctions sales manager responsible for this sale, commented, “This was a challenging project, and it was soon evident this sale would not be without its difficulties. The first inventory was in the Henry yard where the majority of assets, small tools and materials were stored in chaotic order, with conditions being such that many auction houses would not entertain being involved with this sale.”
“We were faced with a few options. Either the items in the yard could be sold ‘as-is’ in a job lot, or we could take some time and effort to sort and catalogue all lots in an orderly inventory, which is how Euro Auctions like to operate. We opted for the latter option, lining up lots in typical Euro Auctions fashion, and our painstaking efforts paid off, returning to FRP double the initial estimated sale valuation.”
“The second inventory included over 200+ pieces of plant and machinery recovered from in excess of 35 active Henry construction sites in central London, that needed collecting, and repatriating before being sent to the live August sale in Leeds.
“This was one of the most difficult aspects of preparing for this sale, where access to sites in and around central London was difficult, where permits were required to close roads and load machinery, where items were on high-rise construction sites and needed craning down," Chris explained. "We liaised with multiple developers, security firms and contractors working across all of the sites to enable the recovery of assets. In four weeks, we recovered over 200 items including excavators, rollers, dumpers, manlifts, concrete pumps, generators, bowsers, plus much more smaller attachments.
“As FRP Advisory wanted to move quickly, and find buyers for this consignment, the decision was made to take this inventory to the scheduled August sale in Leeds, and piggy backing on Europe’s biggest plant and machinery auction," Chris continued. "With this high profiled sale ready to go, the Henry consignment was put in front of an international audience of over 4,500 registered bidders who were looking for good stock and it was sold for true market value.
“With collections still ongoing, from additional sites, that equipment will feature at our Leeds, September auction, which will conclude the disposal, by Euro Auctions of plant and equipment from Henry Construction Projects Ltd", Chris added.
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