by Shane Henson — August 14, 2013—Balfour Beatty, an international infrastructure group, recently announced its decision to sell its U.K. facilities management business (UK FM) to GDF Suez Energy Services, a global provider of power, natural gas and energy services.
Operating as Balfour Beatty WorkPlace, the UK FM business is a provider of outsourced integrated services and total FM solutions with capabilities including facilities management, business process outsourcing and energy services. The business has a number of major contracts in the U.K. with clients including the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs, as well as the Romec joint venture with the Royal Mail Group, which provides a wide range of technical and building services to Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide, says Balfour Beatty.
The business is expected to continue to provide FM services to Balfour Beatty’s current portfolio of social infrastructure public-private partnership (PPP) assets in the U.K. and to collaborate with the group on the development of its investments in the future.
The UK FM business, the performance of which is reported within the Group’s Support Services segment, generated £482 million of revenue in 2012 with operating profit of £21 million, and has more than 9,000 employees. Gross assets at December 31, 2012 were £197 million, the company says.
Commenting on the sale, Andrew McNaughton, CEO of Balfour Beatty, said, “The sale of the UK FM business represents an important step in our evolution as we intensify our focus on infrastructure. In addition to finding a good new home for the business, its customers and employees, this transaction has achieved good value and will enable us to allocate more resource to target growth sectors and markets in the future.”
