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Thomas Vale and McBains Cooper have emerged as two of the companies circling PCM, the management consulting arm of Pettifer Group, which went into administration at the end of last month.

A Singapore-based project management group called Confluence is also understood to be in the frame, although a management buyout is also possible.

Pettifer failed after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) pulled the plug on the business. KPMG, the administrator, is understood to be seeking a sale of the 拢10m-turnover PCM arm as a going concern. The rest of the 拢50m-turnover Warwickshire-based group will be broken up.

Talks over the disposal of PCM have been intense in recent days because RBS has imposed a deadline of today for the completion of the deal.

Dutch consultant Grontmij and listed UK group Baqus have pulled out of the race after previously expressing an interest, according to sources close to Pettifer.

McBains Cooper declined to comment on the speculation but a source close to the consultant, which has a turnover of 拢15m, confirmed that it had expressed an interest. They said: 鈥淧CM is on some decent jobs like Walbrook Square.鈥� The scheme is a retail development in London designed by Foster + Partners and Ateliers Jean Nouvel (pictured).

However, the source added that uncertainty over whether all PCM鈥檚 projects would be assigned to the winning bidder lowered the chance of a deal.

Confluence declined to comment but a source close to the company said: 鈥淚t has had a good look and is interested in doing a deal.鈥� The firm was founded in Australia in 1991 and has been in the UK since 2005. It is working on the refurbishment of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London.

Meanwhile Tony Hyde, managing director of 拢200m-turnover Midlands contractor Thomas Vale, confirmed that the company had looked at 鈥渁ll parts of the Pettifer Group鈥� but said it was uncertain any deal would go ahead, without citing reasons.

The deal risks falling through if no agreement is reached by the end of today.