Now the largest building envelope contractor in the UK, the firm looks to expand further in Britain

German cladding giant Lindner is targeting £160m-£170m worth of work in the UK in the next five years after acquiring one of the UK’s largest specialists, Prater.

The acquisition establishes Lindner as the largest building envelope contractor in the UK, in a specialist sector increasingly dominated by global contractors.

Prater, which has a turnover of £65m, was one of the few remaining UK cladding firms before the takeover on Monday, and has worked on projects including the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Westfield London.

Juergen Wax, chief executive of Lindner UK, said: “We are now the biggest envelope contractor in Britain and we want to expand that further.”

Wax said the tie-up will allow Prater to take its expertise overseas and that there would be “massive synergies” from sharing design and manufacturing facilities.

Lindner, with a turnover almost 10 times the size of Prater, confirmed the firm will continue to operate under the Prater name and will retain its 300 staff.

Wax added: “The acquisition allows us to carry out work in-house that we would previously have had to subcontract out. It will also allow Prater to expand its activities into mainland Europe and into the Middle East.”

The two firms will work together in India, where Prater has recently set up to work on the Formula One race track development based in New Delhi.

Lindner has operations in more than 20 countries, and has recently completed major projects including 30 Crown Place, Greenwich Peninsula, Harlequin BSkyB and Heathrow Terminal 5.

Lindner first entered the facades market with its purchase of renowned UK specialist Schmidlin UK in 2006, to form Lindner Schmidlin Facades.

Gavin Hamblett, pre-construction director at Prater, said: “The overseas market is something we have wanted to further explore. This is an opportunity to make the most of each other’s clients and relationships.”

This second acquisition further increases Lindner’s UK market share.

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