M Group Services and Skanska exchanged contracts on the sale back in in December 2020.
Skanska generated £334m in revenue from the business in 2020, comprising highways maintenance, rail maintenance and streetlighting activities. M Group Services is taking over an order book worth £541m.
Skanska said that it would book a net gain of £31m on the £50m transaction.
Following completion of the acquisition, a new operating business called Milestone Infrastructure Ltd has been formed. Milestone will operates as a standalone business delivering highways maintenance, street lighting and projects through existing relationships with local authority clients including Devon, Somerset, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Redbridge, Croydon, Lewisham, Peterborough, and Cambridgeshire councils.
Teams delivering rail infrastructure services to Transport for London transfer to another M Group Services company Dyer & Butler.
The acquisition of Skanska UK’s Infrastructure Services operation signals the continued growth of M Group Services, it said. The private equity backed business, previously called Morrison Utility Services, has made 12 acquisitions in the past five years.
Milestone Infrastructure will continue to operate under the leadership of managing director Adrian Cooke, previously managing director of Skanska Infrastructure Services. He reports to Neil Edwards, managing director of M Group Services’ transport division.
Jim Arnold, chief executive of M Group Services, said: “We are acquiring a highly-regarded infrastructure service business with a first-class reputation for strong and innovative service delivery across its longstanding client base. This acquisition extends our scope of capability in the field of highways and rail infrastructure maintenance and provides our Transport Division with considerable additional resource, experience and expertise.”
Neil Edwards, managing director of M Group Services’ transport division, said: “The addition of Milestone will create new opportunities to drive synergies with our existing operating businesses and add momentum to our exciting growth plans in the transport sector. Consistent with our previous acquisitions, we will provide Milestone with the financial and operational support to expand its presence and explore new market opportunities, whilst building on its established client relationships.”
Milestone managing director Adrian Cooke added: “Over many years, we have established strong client relationships across the highways sector and this acquisition creates the platform for the next exciting stage of our growth. With the support of the group, and the financial scale that this brings, we are perfectly positioned to identify new opportunities to expand our presence, cement our leading market reputation and to be the first choice for improving and maintaining highway infrastructure in the UK."
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