Balfour Beatty buys Covion to boost fm capabilitiies

Balfour Beatty has paid £33m for Covion. The move boosts Balfour’s reach into the facilities management sector.

Covion will become part of Haden Building Management (HBM), Balfour’s existing fm arm. The move adds a strong private sector presence and a specialist expertise in a range of white and blue collar functions to HBM’s predominantly public sector portfolio.

Covion was founded in 2000 and is based in Theale, near Reading. It has 600 employees.

The latest financial results for Covion Ltd (12 months to 31 December 2006) shows a turnover of £25m, up 65% on 2005 which itself was 46% higher than the previous year. Covion’s award tally included the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 for the two years running.

Pre-tax profit of £1.3m was well ahead of the previous figure of £790,000. Cash in the bank ran to £3m and an early payment of £500,000 of debt had been made thanks to the strong inflow of cash.

Debtors more than doubled to £8.6m while creditors jumped from £4.2m in 2005 to £9m.

The group had net assets running to £2.3m.

Covion has featured in the Europe’s Hot 100 for two years in succession.

During 2006 it launched a bespoke computer-aided fm system E-wize which produces “statistical information in real time”.

The sellers were Covion’s management and its private equity investors. 

Ian Tyler, chief executive of Balfour, said: “This is an important step in increasing our penetration of the private sector facilities management market and in broadening and deepening our range of expertise in technology, property and people services.”

Covion’s customer base includes Logica CMG, Anglian Windows, Britvic and Tate & Lyle. 

Covion’s service offering comprises:

• technology services, including PABX and communications network maintenance, mobile phone management and system installation
• property services including surveying and space planning
• people services including payroll, interim management, people sourcing and induction management
• cleaning, security and catering