A former chief government of Amey Group is being lined as much as return to the helm as a part of a £220m takeover of considered one of Britain’s greatest outsourcers.
Sky News has learnt that Andy Milner, who left the Spanish-owned firm in 2019, is in superior talks with Buckthorn Partners, a non-public funding agency, about retaking the highest job at Amey.
Sources near the scenario mentioned a deal could possibly be finalised between a Buckthorn-led consortium and Ferrovial, Amey’s present proprietor, as quickly as this month.
Mr Milner spent 4 years as Amey’s chief government, and has extra lately been government chairman of Matrix Networks, which installs utility infrastructure for company clients.
If confirmed, his return to the corporate would coincide with its buy by an investor group which incorporates Lord Philip Hammond, the previous chancellor, who’s a accomplice at Buckthorn.
In June, Sky News revealed {that a} consortium comprising Buckthorn and One Equity Partners, a US-based non-public fairness agency, had entered unique talks to purchase Amey.
The outsourcer, which has endured a string of contractual and monetary difficulties, was put up on the market for a second time final yr by Ferrovial.
The Spanish infrastructure large had beforehand aborted an public sale course of which started in 2018.
New management on the firm would signify an extra altering of the guard within the sector after Serco introduced the retirement of its long-serving boss, Rupert Soames.
A takeover by Buckthorn and One Equity would see one of many UK’s greatest non-public sector employers altering palms.
Amey, which ranks among the many authorities’s most important non-public sector contractors, has a workforce of roughly 15,000 individuals.
Among the general public sector actions it refers to on its web site are the upkeep of the UK defence property, conserving 60 prisons “safe and compliant” through the COVID-19 pandemic, and creating the ability programme for the HS2 high-speed rail hyperlink.
Buckthorn describes itself as a non-public funding agency predominantly centered on buying belongings within the power sector.
Its portfolio consists of Ashtead Technology, which makes superior subsea instruments, and Paradigm Energy Ventures, which it owns alongside an arm of Saudi Aramco.
In addition to Lord Hammond, the Buckthorn partnership consists of Lord Colin Moynihan, who served as sports activities minister beneath Margaret Thatcher.
The two males had been college contemporaries, and Lord Hammond chaired Lord Moynihan’s constituency Conservative Association when the latter was an MP through the Eighties.
Lord Hammond was the MP for Runnymede and Weybridge for greater than twenty years earlier than dropping the social gathering whip when he opposed authorities coverage by voting towards Britain leaving the European Union with no deal.
He spent almost a decade within the Cabinet, together with as chancellor, overseas secretary and defence secretary.
Since quitting politics, he has amassed an array of directorships and advisory posts, together with within the fintech, transport and actual property sectors.
Ferrovial, which owns a giant chunk of London Heathrow Airport, has contemplated a sale of its total international providers enterprise for a while.
The preliminary try to divest Amey within the UK was unsuccessful amid uncertainty about the way forward for a controversial £2.7bn roads contract in Birmingham.
A dispute with town’s native authority was resolved in 2019, though Amey solely lastly extricated itself from the deal final yr.
The tidying-up of Amey’s enterprise is probably going to offer potential consumers with a clearer view concerning the firm’s valuation in a sector which has been rocked by a number of distinguished company collapses in recent times, together with that of Carillion and Interserve.
Morgan Stanley is dealing with the public sale of Amey.
A spokeswoman for Buckthorn declined to remark.
Source: information.sky.com”