ONE OF Northern Ireland’s leading family-owned development and building companies has revealed it has been forced to enter into talks with its creditors because of “economic pressures”.

The Belfast-based Carvill Group, which has been in business for more than 60 years, has contacted creditors to discuss an insolvency procedure that involves a legally binding agreement between a company and its creditors.

A creditors voluntary agreement (CVA) can provide a company in financial difficulties with the opportunity to agree a timetable regarding payments of all or part of its debts with its creditors.

In a statement, the Carvill Group confirmed it was planning to hold discussions with its creditors, as yet unspecified, about a CVA.

“We recognise the difficulty that this course of action will have for our creditors and can only apologise for having to do it.”

The Carvill Group is a major house-builder not only in the North but also in Scotland, the northeast of England and Germany. At one stage it had more than 2 million sq ft worth of sites under development.

It is also currently involved in what could potentially be one of Belfast’s largest regeneration projects, the Sirocco Quay in the centre of the city.

The multi-million pound 10- year project, which was expected to kick off this year, covers a 15- acre site which was earmarked for four-star hotels, a possible convention centre and 2,000 homes.

It is estimated that the group may have paid £40 million for the site in 2006.

The Carvill Group has chosen not to elaborate on the “economic pressures” which has forced it to consider going down the route of a CVA process. However, it did state that it had held “positive discussions” with banks and that it expects they “will fully support the process”.

“It is our intention that we do not disrupt existing contracts to purchase homes on our projects,” it added. “We will be continuing to pursue planning permissions for our projects and onward development of them.”