Balfour Beatty has rejected a £1bn (€1.27bn) offer for its portfolio of UK public-private partnership (PPP) assets from John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIM).
The UK construction company valued the portfolio at £1.05bn in the summer, but it said JLIM’s bid “falls significantly short” of the level of profit it could generate by selling projects individually.
Balfour Beatty will publish an updated valuation in January, taking into account existing assets and projects in the pipeline.
Earlier this week, share prices in Balfour Beatty jumped ahead of anticipation that John Laing’s global infrastructure fund would buy the portfolio of hospitals, roads and schools. The news follows several years of profit warnings, takeover attempts and the appointment of a new CEO.
Traded on the London stock exchange, JLIM manages a global portfolio that was valued this year at £810m, with 54 underlying assets.
The fund was listed in 2010, raising £270m and acquiring 19 PPP assets from John Laing Group.
