Nomura buys into UKFM market

by Carol Millett Turner and Townsend Group has sold its UK facilities management arm to Japanese investment bank Nomura in a deal which will see the company's construction management unit partnering Nomura in its future PFI and property dealings.

The £4.5 million deal will see the FM unit absorbed into Nomura's holding company Servus, recently set up to acquire major PFI and corporate property portfolios. It will be known as Servus Facilities Management.

Turner and Townsend group chairman Jeff Smith said: "We have established a strategic partnering arrangement with Servus Holdings. They already have a number of high profile, blue chip partners and an excellent record in partner alliances. We expect the mutual benefits to be considerable."

The deal was prompted by Nomura's failure last year to buy the Department of Social Securities estate of 700 properties. Nomura was pipped at the post by Trilium, a consortium led by Goldman Sachs, because it had an FM arm to look after the properties.

Servus Holdings' managing director Michael Medlicott said the deal "will allow us to play a major part in the Government's moves towards outsourcing its property requirements, which is the main plank of the entire PFI programme. We will be able to work with the growing number of firms in the private sector who want to outsource their property management and rid their balance sheets of property risk."