Rumours of MBO at Bartlett denied

by John Leitch



Bartlett Construction, part of the Hunting Gate Group, is playing down speculation that it is about to undergo a management buy-out. Rumours of a possible buy-out at Bartlett, a £15m turnover business in Yeovil, surfaced after another contractor in the group was sold to management.

However, Bartlett managing director Andrew Plummer said there are no plans to leave the group. Bartlett was bought by the Hunting Gate Group two years ago and is run as part of the Hunting Gate Construction division.

At the beginning of April, the division was split. Part of the business, with a turnover of £40m and ran from offices in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and Leatherhead, Surrey, was sold to a MBO team led by managing director Chris Benham and commercial director Ian Saunders.

Bartlett was excluded from the deal. Jonathan Walters, group chief executive, said the buy-out would allow the group to focus more on development. Asked if a similar MBO for Bartlett was imminent, Walters replied: "I would not have thought so, but who knows. Nothing is immediately contemplated."

He added: "This de-coupling allows us to focus on our property expertise. Hunting Gate Inc, based in California, has a development programme of more than £300m and is a specialist in the property aspects of the US telecoms industry." Walters plans to bring this expertise to the UK.

The MBO business has been renamed HG Construction and has a staff of 93. The Hitchin office covers territory between Derbyshire and the M4/Thames area. Areas south of that are covered by the Leatherhead office.

Social housing accounts for £15m of annual turnover, the balance being commercial projects mainly in education and healthcare. The social housing projects fall into the £500,000-£5m range, while commercial schemes run from £750,000 to £7.5m, the latter being a PFI hospital.