Allen buys Eve

Allen has bought Eve Construction for £1.25 million to give it a foothold in the market in the south east of England.

The new business's poor management record was no deterrent. Ken Fox, managing director of Allen, said: "We can turn it around, give it the impetus it needs. Eve Construction had been the poor relation within the group, Eve having declared it to be a non-core activity. Things had slid for some time.

"With our management, Eve Construction has potential. It has given us a foothold in the south east at less cost than if we'd made a greenfield start. The south east is a better market than the one in our part of the world [north east England].

"We bought the company for its client list which is very good. It includes several London boroughs, some National Grid companies and the Royal Household."

Eve is currently working at Guy's Hospital, the Natural History Museum and Surrey University. Eve is to focus on the core divisions of Power and Trakway. "These two divisions performed strongly last year and indications for the current year are encouraging," said Peter Corley, acting chairman of Eve.

Eve Construction made an operating profit of £13,000 last year on a turnover of £17.6 million. It has assets of £660,000.

l Speaking at Allen's AGM last week, Donald Greenhalgh, chairman, said its building contracting companies, Allenbuild and P S Turner have work in hand of £102 million. "Tender enquiries remain encouraging and we expect another good performance," he said.

DJ Ryan & Sons, Allen's civil engineering division, is "performing well" and has work in hand of £23 million. It has recently been awarded term contracts for Severn Trent Water and Manweb. G Pearce, with a new md, should return to profitability, said Greenhalgh.