Jersey arm of Carillion buckles under £200m debt

Wednesday 31 January 2018

The Jersey arm of the UKs second-largest construction company is being plunged into liquidation after buckling under a £200million debt pile.

The English-domiciled infrastructure business was mostly involved in public projects including schools and hospitals, but those – as well as the jobs of their 20,000 UK employees – were cast into doubt after it was revealed earlier this month that they had been sitting on debts of £1.5billion.

It’s now emerged that the PLC’s Jersey subsidiary, Carillion Finance, didn’t go untouched.

It was found to be running with debts of close to £200million, and had obligations shared with affiliates totalling a further £2.6billion. 

The construction giant’s Jersey arm has now been placed into liquidation, with Carey Olsen appointed to advise.

Partner Jeremy Garrood appeared in Jersey’s Royal Court last Friday on the matter, instructed by the UK’s Official Receiver to become the liquidator for the troubled company’s Jersey operations. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) were appointed as joint Jersey liquidators.

The Courts concluded that such a high-profile case with a genuine public interest should be conducted using Court-appointed liquidators, also expressing a preference to avoid parallel cross-border processes so as not to disrupt the main proceedings.

Questioned by Express, the States of Jersey said that they did not have any investments in Carillion or any of its associated entitles, adding that “to the best of our knowledge” the company had never been involved in any projects.