FM Report 206 - Friday 5th October 2007

05 October 2007

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Apax Partners acquires Faceo group
A leading French private equity firm, Apax Partners SA, has acquired the Faceo group from its joint shareholders Cegelec and Thales. The transaction, conducted with the management team of Faceo, should be closed in the coming weeks. Faceo was created in 2000 and has developed a strong client list including Thales and Cegelec, AGF, Alcatel, Areva, EADS, France Telecom, General Electric, Nestlé, PSA, Sanofi-Aventis, Siemens and the Quai Branly Museum in France, UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and the Benelux countries. The Faceo group has 1,533 employees and its turnover in 2006 was €349m, up by 10% compared to 2005.
http://www.faceo.com

Carillion sells Pall Mall to Resource
Irish soft services company, Resource Services Group, has acquired Pall Mall, the cleaning and security services arm of Carillion, for £22m. The move makes Resource the largest Irish-based support services company with annual revenues of £150m. It acquired Ireland based support services companies Grove Services Group , CCS and Masterclean in 2006-7. This acquisition of Pall Mall, the sixth largest company in the support services sector with 7,500 staff, makes Resource a major support services player in the UK.
http://www.carillionplc.com

National Britannia bought by Connaught
Connaught Plc has conditionally agreed to acquire National Britannia Holdings Limited, the specialist provider of H&S compliance services, for £91m. The move will enable National Britannia together with Connaught's existing compliance division to offer clients an integrated 'blue collar' and 'white collar' compliance service in a market estimated to be worth over £4.6bn per annum. National Britannia employs 770 people and operates from a national network of 23 offices.
http://www.connaught.plc.uk

Kier contracts in Stoke and Hammersmith
Kier has been appointed preferred bidder by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to deliver a £400m of repairs and maintenance on the city's 20,000 council-owned houses through a newly formed JV company in which the Council has a 20% share. The 10 year deal also includes repairs and maintenance to the city's municipal buildings. Kier has also signed a £25m agreement with Hammersmith & Fulham Management Services Limited to carry out repairs and maintenance on 7,165 council-owned houses for the next 5 years.
http://www.kier.co.uk

Carillion selected for NE schools BSF
Carillion, through its JV partners The Local Education Partnership, has been selected preferred bidder for the £175m South Tyneside and Gateshead BSF programme to deliver 14 secondary schools by 2012 and associated healthcare and community facilities. Carillion will also provide FM services over the PPP contract term of 25 years.
http://www.carillionplc.com

A new chairman for the FMA
The FMA have announced that Richard Sykes of Taylor Woodrow is to be their new Chairman, with Stephen Pippard, of Reliance Facilities, appointed as Vice Chairman. Richard Sykes takes over from Gareth Hollyman of JonesLangLassalle who has held the post for the past 2 years. In that time the FMA membership has grown considerably with 15 new companies joining in 2007.
http://www.fmassociation.co.uk

Minister announced hospital deep clean
Department of Health has announced that hospitals across England will undergo an aggressive programme of intensive deep cleaning. This will, it says, make it easier to maintain a clean hospital in the future and will be the first time hospitals have been asked to deep clean their entire site. The move could cost £50m funded by SHAs. Health Minister, Alan Johnson said, "The NHS is heading for a financial surplus this year and it is a prudent use of some of this money to provide an even better environment for patients."
http://www.dh.gov.uk

Office winners
At the BCO's annual Awards this week the transformation of single floor of the London HQ of fit-out specialists, ISG, was judged as the Best of the Best in UK offices today. The open plan multi-use space topped a host of other winners including Great Glen House, Inverness, the eOffice, Manchester, The Asticus Building, London, The Hub, Farnborough, and Lemsford Mill Estate near Welwyn Garden City.
http://www.bco.org.uk

BIFM Annual General Meeting 2007 report
BIFM financial strength was welcomed at its Annual Meeting last week. It has an income of £2.34m - about half coming from its successful training and publishing JVs, networking and conference events. New appointments to the Members Council included Liz Turnbull (members' representative) and Lucy Jeynes (corporate representative); Richard Byatt, BIFM Director of Communications & External Affairs was appointed to the BIFM Board, and Dave Wilson took up his post as Deputy Chairman.
http://www.bifm.org.uk

SIA approvals for MacLellan
MacLellan has achieved approved contractor status with the SIA in four categories, the first FM company to do so. The categories - security guarding, door supervision, CCTV and vehicle mobilization - will cover all client security needs.
http://www.interserve.com

LPM aims for national role
Kent-based London Property Maintenance, now backed by private equity investor, Sovereign Capital, has taken on a new identity - LPM. Headed by David Howroyd, formerly MD of Rentokil Initial's cleaning, pest control and security businesses, LPM aims to become a national operation through organic growth and build bases in Sidcup, Coventry and Manchester.
http://www.lpm-group.co.uk

On-line risk assessment
BSI British Standards has launched an on-line assessment tool to measure how UK organisations will cope in a crisis and to determine the adequacy of existing plans against BS25999-1 Business Continuity Management Code of Practice.
http://www.bsi-global.com/BS25999Online

Emprise cleaning up
The University of Sussex has contracted Emprise Services to clean 34 of its buildings covering over one million sq ft and including laboratories, the library, lecture theatres, sports centres, a crèche, offices and associated common areas. In another contract, it is to provide a total stewarding service to The Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane.
http://www.emprise.co.uk

Specialist consultants go independent
Buro Happold has launched its specialist consulting security team as an independent consultancy, Happold Safe & Secure Ltd whilst remaining an integral part of the Buro Happold 'family'. Mark Whitaker, who currently leads the security group, will head HS&S.
http://www.burohappold.com