40-50 senior staff are expected to leave as £554m deal is finally done

Carillion is facing the loss of senior Alfred McAlpine staff after its £554m takeover of the company this week.

A source at McAlpine said 40-50 senior staff from the support services firm intended to leave, despite John McDonough, Carillion’s chief executive, saying he wanted as many McAlpine staff to stay as possible.

McDonough did admit that McAlpine’s four executive directors – chief executive Ian Grice, finance director Mark Greenwood, managing director Matt Swan and company secretary Chris Lea would all leave. Grice is expected to depart with a pension and shares worth more than £5m.

A number of rival firms have also reported approaches from McAlpine staff anxious to leave. Defence contractor Babcock is to take on 400 McAlpine staff involved in a joint venture.

A source said: “It’s a shambles. Carillion has a disaster on its hands. Everyone is leaving on the senior management team.”

The source said McAlpine staff were angry because they believed they had not been kept informed during the takeover process. They felt it would be similar to Carillion’s acquisition of Mowlem in 2006, after which more than 300 staff left.

It’s got a disaster on its hands. Everyone is leaving on the
senior management

Source close to Carillion

He also said staff had been shown a structure diagram of the newly merged company in which the only named executives were from Carillion.

A source at a rival contractor said: “People are looking at what happened with Mowlem and seeing exactly the same thing happening again.

“I’d be surprised if Carillion wasn’t worried about losing some divisional directors. They don’t feel they have a future there.”

Carillion said McAlpine’s three principal divisions – infrastructure, business and project services – would be absorbed and headed by Carillion directors Roger Robinson, Don Kenny and David Hurcomb.

Carillion denied deciding to make staff redundant, and said it was too early to say how many senior staff would go. It said: “We are desperate for as many to stay as possible. This is not slash and burn.”

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