Staff at the 1400-strong quantity surveying-to-facilities management group were told of the restructuring last week. It will involve French parent Dalkia taking over Symonds' 250 FM staff.
Sources close to Symonds said the remaining QS, project management and engineering side of the firm will be sold with a £10m-15m price tag, possibly to its own management.
One said: "Symonds executives have asked what Dalkia is going to do with the technical consultancy side of the business. They have been told 'we're going to sell it'. After this split, it would be an insult to their intelligence to tell them otherwise." WS Atkins, which was interested in Symonds last year, could make another bid for the firm. An alternative scenario is that Symonds' consultancy arm would be switched to Coteba, a property-related specialist within the empire of Dalkia's parent, Vivendi.
The sources said Dalkia has decided that consultancy is a non-core activity, and that it has already had this side of the business externally valued in preparation for a summer sale.
Dalkia finance director Ian Sexton, who is understood to be handling sale arrangements, said: "Our whole group is changing. I certainly couldn't say what will stay 'in' and what will go out. It would be speculation on my part." Symonds chief executive Chris Booy declined to discuss a sale of the consultancy arm, but said he would not be interested in leading a buyout if a sale was to come about.
He said he was excited by the split and the new opportunities that it might throw up.
Under the split, Symonds' FM advisers will move to Dalkia's offices and will gradually stop working under the Symonds name.
They will become part of bidding teams put together by Dalkia, which specialises in carrying out rather than consulting on FM work. They will have a joint marketing strategy with Dalkia's FM operation.
It is possible that, if an outside buyer cannot be found at the right price, the constituent parts of Symonds' technical consultancy arm could be sold separately.
Atkins might be tempted by a £2.5m price tag for Symonds' successful transportation arm, and the 75-strong Woolf construction management business could also prove attractive.
Woolf managing director Ron Davis left Symonds for property agent Jonathan Edwards last month, but he is unlikely to be tempted into buying the business. He declined to comment on Symonds' future.
One Symonds business has already gone. Novo, its architectural arm, was sold to its 25% shareholder and ex-YRM chief Tim Poulson at the end of February.
There is speculation that, as well as wanting to integrate Symonds' FM advisers with its own building services engineers, Dalkia wants to take greater control of its FM bidding strategy.
Although Symonds' FM consultants have been successful in winning a huge contract to manage the Department of Social Security's estate, they have also had setbacks.
Industry sources said the firm lost £1m when it failed to win a £250m private finance initiative contract to redevelop GCHQ's Cheltenham base, and the same amount when it withdrew from an FM deal with Rolls-Royce.
Symonds lost £840 000 before tax on £70.6m turnover in the year to 31 December 1997, and made £1.1m before tax on £71.2m in 1996.
