Specialist demolition firm Keltbray is thought to be in advanced discussions to buy part of the Dunne Group.

Last month, the concrete frame company Dunne lost 524 jobs after it fell into administration and administrator FRP Advisory has been in talks with several parties over the sale of assets.

A source close to the company said: “A lot of people were interested but it seems the offer from Keltbray is the most serious.”

Keltbray employs more than 1,000 people and has a turnover of £270 million.

On the projects Dunne was working on at the time of its collapse, the company has now been replaces on many of these major contracts.

Byrne Bros has been brought in by Brookfield at One Blackfriars and 100 Bishopsgate, while Getjar is to complete the concrete frame at Mace’s Newington Butts site.

Mace said: “We have been working with the administrators and have negotiated the purchase of available materials and hire plant currently on site.

“Discussions continue between the administrators and various parties regarding items of plant on site.”

The company added that site operations experienced an element of downtime, though all cranes were working and material deliveries were quickly recommended.

Mace is now finishing its final negotiations with Getjar to complete the concrete frame, while Keltbray and FRP were not available to comment.

The Dunne Group was a Scottish firm that worked on several of London’s skyscrapers and its collapse has left hundreds more subcontractors facing an uncertain future.

It is understood that the group bid aggressively for major, long term contracts after the financial crisis of 2008 and has since struggled to keep costs low enough to stay in profit.

Hospitals in Scotland were among the unprofitable contracts and the group had been in a cash crisis for a number of weeks before the decision was made to call in administrators.