LONDON: Balfour Beatty British infrastructure group said on Friday it had discarded a 1 billion pound ($1.6 billion) offer from John Laing Infrastructure Fund for public private partnership assets.
Balfour said it fell significantly short of its own valuation of the portfolio. The non binding proposal from the fund, an investor in hospitals, roads and schools, was made on Monday.
For Balfour the offer follows a troubled during couple of years, which has issued a string of profit warnings, fended off takeover approaches from rival Carillion, and named defense firm QinetiQ’s boss Leo Quinn as its new chief executive, charged with turning around the firm.
In January The Company said it intended to publish an updated valuation, which would take into account recent contract wins, further investments and disposals, and its investment pipeline.
Balfour increased the valuation of the portfolio in August by 46 percent to 1.05 billion pounds, in part reflecting Britain’s economic recovery.
Balfour said the portfolio and its team played important roles within its other construction and support services arms, and said any proposal would need to reflect that.
Balfour said separately key findings from a review by accountancy firm KPMG of its struggling British construction business were expected to be announced in late January.
