BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

摘要

There's something funny in the air. Wates' purchase last week of the bulk of Shepherd's construction business is more than just a story about an expanding company boosting its turnover. Because as well as bringing with it a large number of contracts and important construction clients, the acquisition, through the purchase of Shepherd Engineering Services (SES), also allows Wates to fully deliver its own M&E work for the first time. Chief executive Andrew Davies told Building last week the firm had taken the decision in order that it could de-risk more complex projects for clients, and potentially receive a higher margin for the work. This comes after the developer behind the gigantic Battersea Power Station regeneration project, BPSDC, said it picked French-owned contractor Bouygues for the £lbn third phase of that job specifically because the firm could deliver in house the complex concrete packages. Without this in-house expertise, it said, it viewed this aspect of the work as a major risk to the success of the project.