First Tech Group, the parent company of liquidated structural steel company Cosira, has started voluntary business rescue proceedings, after admitting in its application that the group was “financially distressed” and could not pay its debts.

The 20-year-old company, which employed over 5 000 people across its subsidiaries, last week appointed business rescue practitioners Leslie Matuson and Tobias John Louw to oversee the process for First Strut, trading as First Tech Group, and 21 of its subsidiaries.

These comprised Energotec; Energotec Engineering Services; Typro; Flint Construction; FT Construction; Gazelle Engineering; Gazelle Plastics; Hollyberry Props; Internatio; Noteworthy Trade; Ogatin; R&D Metal Works; FT Global Logistics; Rowan Tree; Serenade Trade and Invest; Speedroll Property Holdings; Thornbird Trade and Invest; Top Form; Wire Systems Technology; and Flexicon Piping Specialists.

The rescue proceedings excluded the newly acquired Cosira – with a 2 000-strong workforce – as it went into business rescue on June 12, before being placed under provisional liquidation last week.

First Tech applied for business rescue across the 21 subsidiaries, stating that the still unsolved June 19 murder of its chairperson and FD, Jeffrey Wiggill had placed the group, which was already strained in a “depressed economic climate”, in a “dire and invidious” position.

The group stated that it had to unravel a number of “complex and intricate financial transactions”, including the Cosira deal, and that a preliminary investigation had revealed that its existing cash flow and funding were not sufficient to allow the group to trade profitably.

The simultaneous business rescue proceedings for each of the group’s subsidiaries enabled the companies, either collectively or individually, to be restructured, or for the disposal of individual subsidiaries or the entire group.

First Tech director and CEO Andris Bertulis noted in the business rescue application, dated July 4, that there seemed “reasonable prospects” for the company and its subsidiaries to be restructured and returned to profitability, or, at the very least, to provide a better return for creditors and shareholders than liquidation would.