London contractor HOC (UK) has gone into administration and been sold in a ‘prepack’ deal following last year’s dramatic turnover surge, as creditors aim to recover their money.

On June 13, Opus Restructuring was appointed as the company’s administrator, with the £50,000 sale to Coppercast being made two days later, according to the latest report from creditors.

The prepack is a mechanism which allows a firm to be sold as a going concern, with a sale agreed before entering administration and being conducted by the administrator.

A spokesman for Opus said that Coppercast was in negotiations with clients of HOC on the continuation of the contracts who would be in a better position than the creditors if a supplier is “crucial to finishing the work”, as creditors would then find it difficult to recover the amount owed.

Clients would be able to decide whether to use either Coppercast or an alternative contractor to complete the ongoing projects of HOC, he added.

The report from Opus explained that Gary Ellis, who is a Director at Coppercast, is also a shareholder and director of GMSL, which in turn makes him a shareholder of HOC (UK)’s parent organisation HOC Group.

A spokesman commented that this is not a ‘phoenix’ company, although there is a connection, and the directors have not bought it back.

Hugh O’Connor formed HOC in 2010 and is described on the company’s website as being a build contractor who delivers high quality results through lean construction and a leading independent specialist designer.

The report from Opus also showed that turnover for HOC saw a sharp rise from £4 million I 2010 to £24 million in 2014, before trebling to £76 million last year.

18 months ago the then company directors set up a team to manage the expansion of the business, but the report states that the firm became burdened with excessive fees and overheads as turnover increased.