Offsite construction specialist Elements Europe owed subcontractors and suppliers £8.7m when it went into administration last month.

A report by administrators Interpath reveals the scale of debt and losses at the business.

Elements Europe also owed £71.8m to its majority South Korean owner GS Engineering & Construction (GS) who invested in the firm in 2020.

Interpath said: “The company remained solvent only as a result of unsecured shareholder loans provided by GS totalling £71.8m”

Elements Europe accounts show it lost £16.5m in 2023 and £41.2m in 2024.

A further loss of £22.9m was incurred in the four months to the end of April this year.

The mounting losses were primarily blamed on a disastrous move into main contracting in 2021 on two construction projects in Hackney, East London and in Birmingham.

Interpath said the losses were mainly due to “cost overruns and water ingress defects on various projects.”

The stalled Hackney site has now been sold to GS’s real estate division for £100,000.

More than 200 suppliers and subcontractors have been left holding unpaid invoices with Interpath “uncertain” if they will receive a penny for their debts.