Former prime minister Hammond in exclusive talks to buy £200m outsourcer Amey | Business Newsletter

Lord Hammond, the former prime minister, has moved in a key position to acquire Amey, one of Britain’s largest outsourcing groups, after the company where he worked secured an exclusivity period to completed a deal worth more than £200 million.

Sky News learned that Buckthorn Partners, a private investment firm that the Conservatives joined in 2020, has partnered with One Equity Partners, a US-based private equity firm, to sign concluding the Amey takeover.

Industry sources say the sale of Amey, which has been in the works for at least nine months, could be agreed within weeks.

The company, which has endured a series of contractual and financial difficulties, was put up for sale for a second time last year by its Spanish parent company, infrastructure giant Ferrovial.

It previously canceled the auction process that began in 2018.

The takeover by Buckthorn and One Equity will see one of the UK’s largest private sector employers change hands.

Amey, which ranks among the government’s most important private sector contractors, has a workforce of around 15,000.

Among the public sector activities the organization mentions on its website is maintaining the UK’s defense base, keeping 60 prisons “safe and compliant” during the COVID-19 pandemic. , and develop an energy program for the HS2 high-speed rail line.

In a letter to Lord Hammond about his appointment as a partner at Buckthorn, the Whitehall Advisory Committee on Business Appoints (ACOBA) banned him from performing “any work as a partner” in connection with the provision of advice to any corporate entity on the terms of or relating to the subject matter of, a tender or contract directly related to the work of, the UK government” .

The ban has been imposed by ACOBA for two years from the prime minister’s last day in a ministerial term, meaning it expired last July.

Buckthorn describes itself as a private investment firm primarily focused on acquiring assets in the energy sector.

Its portfolio includes Ashtead Technology, which makes advanced undersea tools, and Paradigm Energy Ventures, which it owns with a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco.

In addition to Lord Hammond, the partnership with Buckthorn includes Lord Colin Moynihan, who served as sports minister under Margaret Thatcher.

The two men were students from the same university, and Lord Hammond was Lord Moynihan’s constituency Conservative Association president when the latter was an MP in the 1980s.

Lord Hammond was an MP for Runnymede and Weybridge for more than two decades before losing the whip to the party when he opposed government policy by voting against Britain leaving the European Union without a deal.

He spent nearly a decade in the Cabinet, including the posts of prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister.

Since retiring from politics, he has amassed a range of director and advisor positions, including in the fintech, transportation and real estate sectors.

Ferrovial, which owns a large portion of London Heathrow Airport, has been contemplating selling its entire global services business for some time.

Amey’s initial attempt to divest in the UK has been unsuccessful amid uncertainty over the future of a controversial £2.7billion sugar deal in Birmingham.

A dispute with the city’s local government was settled in 2019, although Amey ultimately withdrew from the deal last year.

Amey’s tidying up of business will likely give potential buyers a clearer picture of the company’s valuation in a sector that has been rocked by a number of prominent corporate collapses over the years. more recently, including Carillion and Interserve.

Morgan Stanley, which is handling Amey’s auction, declined to comment on Monday.

Neither Buckthorn nor One Equity responded to requests for comment.