Four companies, including contractors Mowlem and Taylor Woodrow, are competing for a facilities management deal with bank HSBC.
The quartet are due to put in bids this month for the contract, which is to look after all HSBC's branches and corporate facilities, with the exception of its tower headquarters at Canary Wharf in Docklands, east London. The bank is expected to hand out work to two of the companies.

The other bidders are understood to be EC Harris and Johnson Controls. EC Harris works for HSBC in the Far East after buying Citex's Asian arm last month – Citex had an FM and project management deal with HSBC for the region until 2004.

Mowlem is pitching with its FM arm Aqumen.

Sources say the deal is one of the biggest FM contracts in the UK, and it could be stretched to include the rest of HSBC's European facilities. An FM source said: "The bank wants full-price proposals for the UK. After that it could be expanded to the rest of Europe."

This is the second time HSBC has looked at outsourcing facilities management. It was close to finalising a deal with Taywood last year when talks broke down.

A source close to those negotiations said: "HSBC picked Taylor Woodrow as preferred bidder last year. It was in talks for five months but HSBC was unable to justify the deal in financial terms."

A spokesperson for HSBC confirmed the group was looking at an FM deal. The spokesperson said: "We are considering outsourcing certain FM functions. We are investigating providers at this moment but have not made a decision yet."

The FM deal follows the bank's decision last month to outsource its non-operational property portfolio to agent DTZ.

The portfolio comprises 800 commercial and residential subleases in 200 properties across the country.

DTZ will be responsible for day-to-day management, rent and service charge collection, rent reviews and repairs.