Taggart Holdings is currently working on a financial restructuring plan with consulting firm KPMG.

It is understood the firm owes in excess of £120 million.

The company's assets - as listed on its own website - include 250 sites across Britain and land valued at more than £500 million.

In January this year the company, which has offices in Derry, Belfast and Manchester, announced that ten jobs were to go at its building sites in the UK and Ireland.

Company founder Michael Taggart said that all developers were feeling the effects of the current economic climate.

"We have every intention of trading our way out of this position, he said.

"Tell me one developer or builder who is not feeling the pinch at the minute?"

Mr. Taggart added that the firm had recently received a substantial investment from John McCann of Castleway Developments.

Taggart Holdings was set up in 1989 by Michael Taggart and his brother John.

The company began building houses in Northern Ireland before expanding into the Republic in the mid-1990s.

The firm was bought two years ago by North East England property developer Cecil Yuill for £60 million.