Persimmon, Alfred McAlpine and Carillion have all made acquisitions in the past week
Housebuilder Persimmon bought the regional firm Merewood for £22.6m. It now operates as Merewood Homes and Crowther Homes in Cumbria and Lancashire, but all branches will be rebranded as Persimmon.

Persimmon chief executive John White said: "This transaction will provide us with more than 1000 additional plots [of land] in an area where we were seeking to expand."

Contractor Alfred McAlpine has bought consultant AIM Group Services for £7.2m. AIM will be integrated into McAlpine's business services division. McAlpine wanted the company because of its expertise in regulatory compliance, such as asbestos risk evaluation.

Carillion has taken over Swedish Rail System Entreprenad from HeidelbergCement Northern Europe for £6.2m. This will expand Carillion's rail division into Scandinavia as SRSE owns subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.