ISG’s prospective new owner ‘meeting senior staff’ to outline plans for business

ISG’s prospective new owners have been meeting senior staff to reassure them the impending sale is on track and to outline their plans for the business, Building understands.

The firm’s US owner Cathexis is in negotiations to sell the contractor to a South African businessman but no announcement has been made – nearly five weeks after ISG chairman Matt Roche, who is also the chief operating officer of Cathexis, promised a deal “within days”.

Last month Roche told staff its deal to sell the business “continues to progress” but added that international deals “of this scale and complexity take time to go through”.

He added: “Nothing has changed. We are going through the process. I fully expect the deal to complete.”

It is understood the hold-up centres on red tape in the US under the country’s so-called Know Your Client regulations.

Building understands the would-be buyers have been holding a series of workshops with staff, outlining their plans for the business.

In an email of 5 July, Roche told staff some of the new owner’s plan: “The buyer has confirmed that the sale will include a significant investment, which will recapitalise the business and support the return to normal trading.”

Building also understands that Robert Horvath is being lined up for a potential senior role at the firm.

Horvath was a group managing director at the firm and part of the MBO team that helped float the business in 1998 before he left in 2004 to join PFI and rail maintenance firm Jarvis as chief executive. He has also had spells since at Durkan and Beck Interiors.

It is understood he is expected to be brought in as executive chairman. ISG is understood to be thinking about ditching the chief executive’s post, currently held by Zoe Price, and replacing it with a managing director role when the sale completes.