Hopes that a buyer could be found for the top three constructional steelwork business are fading fast after a mystery Malaysian buyer dropped out.

Administrators from Grant Thornton are now preparing to sell the firm’s plant and machinery in an online auction running in the first week of July.

Grant Thornton said unless an acceptable offer is made for substantially the whole of the assets and a sale agreed before 2 July the auction will proceed.

Less than 20 of the original 500 strong staff and workforce remain, with the last contract at the British Museum expected to run until July.

Sources told the Enquirer that a Malaysian buyer approached administrators with an initial offer rumoured to be £7.5m.

But it is understood that representatives of the firm visited the Rowecord business and then slashed it to an unacceptably low price.

Rowecord’s creditors are expecting to receive a creditors report shortly, which will set out the firm’s debts and latest estimates about how much will be raised from the GoIndustry Dove Bid auction.