Group Five is preparing a sale of three of its biggest subsidiaries as the former construction giant races to salvage what it can from bankruptcy proceedings.

One of the Johannesburg-based company’s business rescue practitioners, David Lake said in an interview that Intertoll Europe, a highway and toll developer based in Budapest, is among the trio of assets Group Five has put on the market.

Everite, which does building and roofing work, and South African real-estate development firm G5 Properties are the other two which will be up for sale.

Once valued at roughly R8.2bn, Group Five filed for bankruptcy protection in March this year. The company is one of five South African building companies to enter business rescue this year.

This is due to low spending on infrastructure which has battered the industry.

Lake and Peter van den Steen, also a business practitioner, have been hired to salvage what they can from the business and protect some the 8 000 odd jobs.

“The group is looking to get fair value for all deals, including larger sales of subsidiaries,” said Lake.

The three divisions are “generating a lot of interest,” he added.

The company said those assets will have to be sold fast, as there is no time to get shareholders to approve the deals.

Instead shareholders will be updated every month with information on “key disposals” and are to get more details when a business rescue plan is published at the end of June.

The money from the sales will then in part go towards satisfying lending banks and also to working capital.

Group Five said if the sales do not go ahead, it will not have the money to proceed with business rescue proceedings.