Teams have been created to bid for two or three packages to be let under BT’s Project Jaguar, which will see £200m of FM work and possibly another £200m of capital projects let by next spring.
Bidders had to register their interest in Project Jaguar last week, and BT was expected to announce an initial long list of bidders late this week. Special consortia have been formed to provide the right mix of FM and construction expertise.
Bidders were wary of commenting, but industry sources said teams making the early running for Project Jaguar are:
- Citex/Mace
- HBG with facilities manager ISS and M&E contractor NG Bailey
- Servus, a team led by Japanese bank Nomura and including facilities manager Serco, estate agent Healey & Baker and architect Aukett Associates
- Mowlem/WS Atkins
- Kier, which is believed to be working with either KPMG or Ernst & Young
- Amec, using in-house companies Amec Consult, Amec Construction and M&E firm Matthew Hall
- Mansell, which is now speaking to possible partners.
Henry Boot is also understood to be discussing an alliance with a management consultant, and Carillion is considering bidding after seeing the full details of Project Jaguar.
BT was unavailable for comment but is understood to see Project Jaguar as an open-ended plan that could evolve further once bids come in.
When BT revealed the plan in Building’s Tenders section (16 July), Project Jaguar was described as a deal to take over its “maintenance and facilities management services”. This is expected to cover £200m of FM work, however the company is also thought to be open to offers for capital projects, if bidders can make a convincing case.
As most bidders are expected to offer this, the next step will be for BT to decide which of them constitutes the best value for money.
About 10 of the 80 firms that have expressed an interest in Project Jaguar are expected to end up on the long list. This will be pruned when BT invites firms to bid, which it is expected to do by November.
The initiative is called Project Jaguar because BT wants to introduce cost savings through methods recommended by former Jaguar chief executive Sir John Egan in Rethinking Construction.
By packaging its FM and possibly its capital projects work into large orders over a number of years, it aims to cut out the waste involved in repeat tendering.
