35 local jobs appear that were threatened by the collapse of giant engineering group Hastie appear to have been saved.

The company went into administration last week with debts thought to be in the vicinity of $500-million.

Hastie is a conglomerate of around 50 Australian and overseas companies including B & E Air Conditioning, which has an outlet at Breakwater.

The administrator has announced a buyer has been found for D & E , and has agreed to retain all staff.

But it’s not yet clear if the agreement includes Geelong workers or if it’s limited to the company’s main office at Rowville.

The administrator has also managed to sell Tullamarine-based Cooke and Carrick Hydraulics.

The sales of the two businesses means more than 400 jobs that appeared almost certain to disappear have now been saved.

The fate of as many as 1,000 employers from other Hastie Group companies is still unknown but the rescue of D & E and Cooke and Carrick has raised hopes that bus8inesses within the group may also be saved.

Picture: D & E Air Conditioning’s office at Breakwater (Google Street View)