Balfour Beatty board rejects all advances from Carillion Balfour Beatty has rejected a revised merger offer from Carillion, leaving the deal in limbo. Following consultation with shareholders, the company said in a statement that the revised proposal “again fails to address the two key concerns that Balfour Beatty has consistently raised.” These were the ‘considerable risks’ associated with the proposed business plan “including the strategy to significantly reduce the scale of the UK construction business when it is poised to benefit from a recovery in the market, and the intention to terminate the sale of (global consulting firm) Parsons Brinckerhoff “at a point when it is reaching a successful conclusion”. Despite Balfour announcing last month that it had terminated the discussions with Carillion, the support services company released a new statement saying
BUSINESS BRIEFS Northern firm’s new FM arm
Carillion has given up courting Balfour Beatty after a third snub
it believed in “the powerful strategic logic and financial benefits of a merger with Balfour Beatty”. Balfour Beatty also announced that its half-year profits have dropped in the year to 27 June 2014. Balfour Beatty’s pre-tax profit fell 53 per cent to £22 million from £45 million at the same point last year as a result of a reduction in the value of engineering services contracts in the UK.
Revenue also dipped to £4.85 billion, a 2 per cent fall from £4.96 billion a year ago. Carillion, however, saw pre-tax profits increase by 5 per cent in the first half of its current financial year. Despite an expected fall in revenue of 5 per cent, the firm increased profits from £64.2 million in the same period last year to £67.5 million. Carillion said it had achieved £3.2 billion of new orders and probable orders in the first half.
Merger cooks up HCM Group catering pack Host Management and Catermasters are to merge to create a company called HCM Group. The deal gives the new business a turnover in excess of £60 million, more than 240 operations, and a combined team of more than 1,500 employees. The new company will be headed by chief executive Bill Toner, and Nigel Johnson becomes deputy CEO. Johnson, who co-established Catermasters in 1989, said: “Bill has huge experience of growing catering companies to a significant size and therefore our newly merged company will use his skills to www.fm-world.co.uk
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The new company says the merger will enabled it to pursue larger contracts
the full. Given the size of our combined business, we now have the exciting prospect to create focused business and industry, education, leisure and healthcare divisions, which will be the
team’s top priority.” Catermasters’ other founder, Richard Moody, has been less involved in the business over recent years and has now sold his remaining shares to HCM Group. He will continue to be a consultant. Tony Carr, Catermasters’ joint managing director, will continue to manage that business. Catermasters is a national caterer operating across 120 sites with a team of more than 550. Host was established in 2004 and is headed by Toner. It has 120 operations across the UK and Ireland, with a team of 1,000.
Construction company McGoff & Byrne of Altrincham has been awarded a contract by the Manchester Airports Group. It will provide reactive maintenance and minor works across the group’s sub-let estate. It will also maintain 48 sites in the North-West, North-East and Midlands for The Garden Centre Group. The firm will also take responsibility for New Care Projects, which has three care centres at present. The firm has created a new FM division to carry out the works.
Benison joins Serco Liz Benison has been appointed chief executive officer for Serco’s UK & European local and regional government division, where she will oversee FM services. She will oversee Serco’s work with local government clients, European institutions and some private sector clients. These services include FM as well as areas of health, environmental services, leisure and support operations for European Agencies. She joins Serco from Computer Science Corp.
Interserve enters waste JV Interserve is partnering Shanks Group plc, Derby City and Derbyshire County Councils to build and operate a waste treatment facility in a 27-year, £950 million Public Private Partnership contract. It will build the £145 million mechanical biological treatment facility and an on-site gasification plant in Sinfin, south Derby, which waste management specialist Shanks will operate, alongside Derby’s existing waste management facilities. FM WORLD | 11 SEPTEMBER 2014 | 13
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