The crisis at Dawnay Day deepened yesterday as creditors moved in to recover their loans.

Norwich Union appointed Shay Bannon, Toby Underwood and Mark Shaw, BDO Stoy Hayward restructuring partners, as administrators to sell assets of two Dawnay Day real estate companies, Starlight Investments and Insureprofit.

BDO has also been appointed as receiver to 14 Starlight and Insureprofit companies and as administrative receiver to a further eight subsidiaries. Together Starlight and Insureprofit hold investments of almost £500m and debt of more than £350m, according to their last Companies House filings. Dawnay Day has gross assets of about $4bn.

Dawnay, Day Treveria, the AIM-listed group with property assets worth €2.33bn (£1.8bn), which are managed by the eponymous financial conglomerate, admitted that it was exploring “alternative arrangements” as concerns rose about Dawnay, Day Group’s financial stability.

Financial Times, The Times, Daily Telegraph