Primus, the company set up by the former directors of Multiplex, has acquired the remainder of Rok’s London and South-east construction business, Construction News reported.
The London-based contractor, a CIOB Chartered Building Company, will more than double in size after picking up about £80m worth of contracts from collapsed firm Rok and saving 40 jobs, Building reported.
Primus, led by Martin Tidd, who in his former role as UK MD of Multiplex oversaw much of the work on the troubled construction of Wembley Stadium, last week finalised a deal to buy the contracts and employ 40 Rok staff, for an unquoted price thought to be less than £1m.
Tidd said he has been in contact with Rok’s administrators, PwC, since Rok’s collapse in November last year. PwC revealed last month that external subcontractors were owed around £93m by Rok.
Tidd told Building: “This will more than double our current turnover, taking us to around £70m this year and possibly around £90m in 2012. We’ve been looking for a regional business to buy – we had a look at Verry and Haymills – but they weren’t right.
“There are a very good bunch of guys here, and it’s a shame they got brought down by the demise of the rest of Rok.”
Tidd said the purchase of the contracts would expand Primus’s reach outside London into the Home Counties and south coast, and also give it several public sector contracts.
The contracts, from Rok’s London and South-east business, are separate from the South-east housing contracts sold to Mansell for £7m in the week after Rok’s collapse.
With framework contracts for Gatwick and Heathrow airports already sold to Mansell, Rok’s London and South-east business comprises chiefly of schools work for county councils including Oxfordshire, Reading and Surrey.
An industry source told Building: “That looks like a really good bit of business. They’ve done well to keep it under wraps.”
Primus was set up three years ago by a number of former directors of Multiplex, now Brookfield. It turned over £25m in 2008 but this fell to £16.5m in 2009, the most recent year for which accounts are available.
