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Fair weather friends fade away as Balfour Beatty and Carillion deal collapses
They say you often find out who your real friends are when you’re at your lowest. Carillion’s announcement that it would be no longer pursuing a merger with Balfour Beatty yesterday came with some conspicuous absences.
When the deal was still hot stuff, announcements came with scores of contacts to send enquiries to; Carillion, Lazard, Greenhill, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Oriel Securities and Carillion’s external PR team at RLM Finsbury. A cast of thousands, you might say.
Yesterday, when Carillion finally admitted defeat, having had its advances rebuffed one too many times, Morgan Stanley and Oriel Securities were the only banking contacts lingering among the tumbleweed, with Carillion and Finsbury. Fair weather friends, eh.