John Laing paves way to a sale

The owner of John Laing is preparing to sell up and has brought in an investment bank to comb through strategic options.

Henderson, the City asset manager that has owned John Laing since 2006, has hired Greenhill to assist in a sale to a rival or a float for the business - one of the biggest players in the construction market.

Henderson had settled a high-profile legal case months before surrounding 22 pension funds connected to its £530 million purchase of John Laing in a sign of tying up loose ends.

The construction firm specialises in building and in running projects under the Private Finance Initiative. Large-scale projects have included the M1 motorway, Sizewell B nuclear power station and Coventry Cathedral. It has a long-term project for the second Severn crossing, and is about to begin a programme to update 13 libraries in the London borough of Croydon, with a five-year contract to transform libraries in Ealing and Harrow in London newly signed.

Starting out in 1848 from Carlisle in the North West, the company has certainly made its mark in history with the build of some of the Mulberry Harbours used in the D-Day landings in World War ll.

John Laing recorded pre-tax profits of £65.6 million last year and had assets under management just topping £1 billion.

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Related information:
Silverdell division bought out of administration
Construction company enters administration

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