Bouygues targets rest of UK

French construction giant Bouygues said it will be expanding its presence in the UK market after buying Portsmouth-based contractor Warings for an estimated £30m.

"We will be looking to acquire more similarly sized companies to expand our network in the UK," Bouygues' UK business development director Ian Gunter told Building magazine. The move will enable Bouygues to compete in traditional contracting in the UK for the first time, its previous work having been done through PFI projects.

Construction News (CN) reported that the French contractor will now be targeting southern England and the South-West, the West Midlands and northern England to strengthen its operations, going for ordinary design and build jobs. "If it's just a job that's already designed and we're asked to put a price on it, we're not interested," CN quoted Gunter as saying. "But if we can bring our technical expertise to design and build then we are."

Building saw Bouygues' plans as part of a growing trend among large foreign contractors, after Chinese contractor MCC met last month with UK companies, including Davis Langdon, with a view to bidding for work in Britain.

The Warings move had been rumoured for some time, Contract Journal reported, even though the company's senior managers, who themselves led a management buy-out 10 years ago, had declared that they had no intention of selling. The Warings name and management, headed by chief executive Len Salter, will remain following the purchase.