Balfour Beatty and Carillion resume £3bn merger talks as clock ticks on deal
Balfour Beatty and Carillion have resumed talks over a potential £3bn merger between the two construction companies, less than two weeks after they were called off because of disagreements between the firms.
The Sunday Times reports the construction firms resumed contact last week and the Balfour Beatty board met on Friday to discuss the deal with executive chairman Steve Marshall at the helm.
It’s said Carillion has made tweaks to its original offer, but the basic deal giving Balfour shareholders a majority stake in the combined company remains the same.
The initial talks ended over a disagreement about Balfour’s engineering consultancy arm Parsons Brinckerhoff. Put on the market in May, it was planned that the sale would continue separately to any potential merger, however Carillion wanted the firm to be included as part of the deal.
Balfour has reportedly asked for more time to consider the offer, however any deal must be made by 21 August under takeover rules.
Neither firms commented on the paper’s report.