Company News Roundup: 8th April 2013

Costain silent as Kier carries out due diligence on May Gurney

Source: Construction News 

Kier is carrying out due diligence on May Gurney as it ponders a bid for the support services company. Kier has been given full access to May Gurney’s ‘data room’ – which is generally a suite of confidential data – as is standard process under the Takeover Code. Kier is yet to make a formal bid for May Gurney, which has already announced a merger plan with Costain. May Gurney announced today that it has been dropped from the re-bidding of a roads contract in Norfolk worth up to £780m.

Company Profile: May Gurney

Edinburgh deal for Interserve

Source: CityAM  

SUPPORT services group Interserve yesterday revealed plans to develop the Haymarket area of Edinburgh as part of a £200m joint venture. The FTSE 250 group yesterday exchanged contracts with the landowner, Tiger Developments, and agreed to invest an initial £10.5m.

Company Profile: Interserve 

Babcock bid pipeline swells by £1.5bn in two months

Source: Construction News  

Babcock has announced it has added £1.5 billion of deals to its bid pipeline since 31 January, including a major defence contract. In a trading update ahead of its full year results in May, the engineering support services firm said it expected full year results to be in line with expectations and show “strong progress” on the previous year. Net debt is expected to approach 1.5 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

Company Profile: Babcock  

Government payment drives questioned as BIS distances itself from Carillion's 120-day payment terms

Source: Construction News 

Two flagship government payment initiatives were under scrutiny this week as Carillion pushed out payment terms to 120 days under the umbrella of prime minister David Cameron’s scheme aimed at supporting SMEs.Government has distanced itself from Carillion’s decision to extend payment terms as part of its interpretation of ‘supply chain finance’ - which sees invoices passed to the banks in a bid to reach suppliers sooner - by saying it “does not encourage the use of supply chain finance to extend payment terms”. The government also came under fire for the increasing use of project bank accounts, which the chief executive of one major contractor labelled as government intervention “possibly of the worst kind”.

Company Profile: Carillion