Lendlease quits offshore construction after 54 years
It is the end of an era for Lendlease, which this week sold its British construction business, ceasing 54 years of offshore building.
Connecticut based Atlas Holdings is the buyer for $70 million (£35m) – c$20m (£10m) to be paid mid next year.
The seller will end in the red, with the cost to unwind negative working capital expected to circle $100m.
The deal comes seven months since Lendlease sold Consigli Building Group its United States East Coast construction arm – with 45 projects at various stages in New York and New Jersey, worth about A$2.9 billion.
Coincidentally, Consigli is Connecticut-based too.
In July, Lendlease entered an agreement to sell its US Military Housing business to Omaha Beach Investments, a Guggenheim Partners Investment Management entity, for $480m.
Four months ago meanwhile, Lendlease offloaded its Asian life sciences business into a Warburg Pincus joint venture.
That deal, worth $147m, saw Lendlease give up a 50pc stake in projects with a total end value circling c$1.6b.
In 2021, Lendlease divested its Services business to Service Stream for $295m after costs (story continues below).
Lendlease focuses on own backyard
Established in 1958, Lendlease began offshore construction in 1971, starting in the United States.
Two years later, it was building in Singapore.
In 1999, it bought then century old London-based Bovis (though the group had been developing in the United Kingdom seven years).
Nowadays backed by amongst others, HMC Capital, John Wyllie’s Tanarra Capital and South Africa based investment house Allan Gray, Lendlease reported a $1.5b annual loss for the 2024 financial year.
Atlas meanwhile – 24 years old – is affiliated with 26 companies employing c50,000 people in 350 manufacturing and distribution facilities globally. It will take on Lendlease’s UK construction workforce.
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