Two investment companies owned by the troubled £2 billion property-and-financials conglomerate Dawnay Day said today that they were unaffected by their parent company's difficulties.

Dawnay Day Carpathian, a property investment company that focuses on Eastern Europe, said that it owned its own assets, which were held separately from the main group. Dawnay Day Sirius, a Germany-focussed investor, said that it was a separate legal entity from the main group, with an independent funding structure.

Dawnay Day appointed administrators Ernst & Young at the weekend to restructure its businesses after failing to secure last-minute funding. It was not clear which businesses are affected in the group's vast portfolo, which includes outright ownership or stakes in assets such as The Wolseley, the London rstaurant, the Carlton Hotel in Edinburgh, Hertie, the German department store chain, and the Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds.

The group carried out a £750 million refinancing at the beginning of the year but now needs more capital. Last week Dawnay Day sold a 20 per cent stake in F&C Asset Management at a loss of £80 million to help the group meet a margin call by its backers.

Alan Bloom, the E&Y partner who oversaw the administration of Railtrack, is handling the restructuring. Dawnay Day is run by Guy Naggar and Peter Klimt, both of whom have large investments in the group. The group has more than 200 subsidiaries and there are fears of a domino effect on their financial stability if the main group gets into serious trouble.

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