Keltbray Infrastructure Services (KIS) has completed the acquisition of Linbrooke Services’ rail business.
Linbrooke’s rail business is an approved Network Rail tier-one principal contractor, delivering design-and-build signalling, telecommunications and associated power solutions across the UK rail infrastructure since 2003.
The transaction sees 140 Linbrooke employees joining KIS along with a £500m pipeline of work.
Keltbray sold its Infrastructure Services business to private equity firm EMK Capital in August this year. [See previous report here.]
Commenting on the Linbrooke acquisition, KIS chief executive Darren James said: “We are pleased with this ‘on strategy’ acquisition of the Linbrooke rail business, generating additional capability to further penetrate the UK’s decarbonised transport market.”
The transaction leaves Linbrooke Services focused solely on the power sector.
In its 2023 annual report, Linbrooke chief executive Lee Hallam commented on how large scale infrastructure project investment in the rail sector had slowed as a result of the dispute with trades unions over pay and conditions. Despite this, it still had a rail sector pipeline of work worth £500m.
Linbrooke also lost nearly £1m due to the collapse of the Buckingham Group in August 2023, for which it was working on rail projects, pushing the company to a £1.0m operating loss for the year to 31st March 2023, and £1.7m pre-tax loss on turnover of £71m.
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