Not content with changing its name from YJL, buying Allen Build and listing on the alternative investment market, the ambitious, London-based firm last week seized control of two facilities management businesses. Now it has just made another offer for materials group VHE.
It splashed out a total of £1.9m in cash last week to buy controlling stakes in facilities management companies Cape and Bullough, with an eye to expanding its services business. It has upped its stake in each firm to just under one-third and Paul Sellars, Montpellier's managing director, has been installed as chairman of Uxbridge-based Cape.
All this has been going on while Montpellier's construction arm, still trading under the YJL brand, integrates the Allen business – which Sellars says is going well.
Sellars and YJL managing director Roger Feast appear to be plotting a plan for further growth from Montpellier's modest Chiswick headquarters, with Sellars revealing that the firm still has cash around for more deals.
"These have been companies we have been tracking for a while and we are very active as managers and investors," Sellars says.
