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Laing deal delayed again
00:00 15 Aug 2001
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Exclusive by John Leitch
O'Rourke's formal acquisition of Laing Construction has been put back another month. The timing of the announcement is now expected to coincide with John Laing's interim results in September.
The deal looks to have been resolved with Ray O'Rourke, the company chairman, now spending much of his working week visiting Laing sites and introducing himself to senior staff.
But there are doubts that O'Rourke will wish to run Laing Construction personally for more than a short-term period. "He'll put somebody in within three months," said a source. "He's too old to take it on personally. I'd have thought he would have appointed a caretaker such as former Laing men Brian Richardson, Steve Moore or David Blair.
"At the moment, who is signing off bids? The departure of Brain May is bad for morale. He must have been extremely unhappy with the situation to have left like this. Remember that as chief executive of the construction division, May would have had the biggest golden handcuffs of all Laing's senior staff."
The view in the city is that once the John Laing Group has sold its construction division, it will struggle to win PFI work as clients prefer to put competitors on their shortlists. It will lack both a construction and facilities service capability.
Selling Laing Homes would provide the cash to overcome this shortcoming. Alfred McAlpine's main construction business would be the ideal buy (CJ 8 August), said one analyst. But he doubted McAlpine's interest in any such deal. In that situation, John Laing's attention would switch to a construction group that is not yet into the PFI market such as Mansell or Morgan Sindall, he said.
O'Rourke's formal acquisition of Laing Construction has been put back another month. The timing of the announcement is now expected to coincide with John Laing's interim results in September.
The deal looks to have been resolved with Ray O'Rourke, the company chairman, now spending much of his working week visiting Laing sites and introducing himself to senior staff.
But there are doubts that O'Rourke will wish to run Laing Construction personally for more than a short-term period. "He'll put somebody in within three months," said a source. "He's too old to take it on personally. I'd have thought he would have appointed a caretaker such as former Laing men Brian Richardson, Steve Moore or David Blair.
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"At the moment, who is signing off bids? The departure of Brain May is bad for morale. He must have been extremely unhappy with the situation to have left like this. Remember that as chief executive of the construction division, May would have had the biggest golden handcuffs of all Laing's senior staff."
The view in the city is that once the John Laing Group has sold its construction division, it will struggle to win PFI work as clients prefer to put competitors on their shortlists. It will lack both a construction and facilities service capability.
Selling Laing Homes would provide the cash to overcome this shortcoming. Alfred McAlpine's main construction business would be the ideal buy (CJ 8 August), said one analyst. But he doubted McAlpine's interest in any such deal. In that situation, John Laing's attention would switch to a construction group that is not yet into the PFI market such as Mansell or Morgan Sindall, he said.
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