Turner & Townsend sits out three-year covenant then comes back fighting.
Construction consultant Turner & Townsend is poised to re-enter the facilities management business, three years after selling its facilities management arm to Japanese Investment Bank Nomura for £4.5m.

Nomura used the purchase to launch Servus Facilities Management, and Turner & Townsend was placed under a three-year covenant that barred it from working within the sector in the UK.

Last month Turner & Townsend Group announced that new UK board member Clive Porter was to market its business solutions service — Turner & Townsend Management Systems.

Porter said that Turner & Townsend was 'looking at the facilities management arena' and to 'watch this space'. He added that the company plans to make an announcement within weeks.

The company said Porter's appointment followed 'a review of the Group's strategic objectives'.

Since the sale in August 1998, Turner & Townsend has acted as a PFI and PPP consultant on healthcare, education and transport deals.

In May 1999 Turner & Townsend senior partner Tim Wray was quoted in Building magazine saying the company was keen to re-establish its facilities management branch.

Servus managing director Phillip Russell said it was expected Turner & Townsend would re-enter the market, but the firm, because of the covenant, was in a different position to Servus.

Russell said he didn't see them as strong competition in the short term. 'They have been very, very honest and trustworthy in not going forward (during the covenant).'

While it was a 'small step' from property management and quantity surveying to facilities management, taking on contracting risk was a 'different angle,' he added.

In 1997 Nomura lost out in bidding for 700 DSS properties to the Trillium consortium. It set up Servus with the acquisition of PFI and corporate property portfolios in mind.

Source

The Facilities Business