Interserve wins £200m contracts in UK and Middle East

Interserve, the services, maintenance and building group, has won contracts in the UK and through its Middle East associates worth over £200 million in aggregate. These are two facilities management contracts, for Ealing Council and Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and two construction projects in Dubai: an extension to the Mall of the Emirates; and a multi-purpose hall for the Government Engineer's Office.

In Ealing, Interserve has been named preferred bidder to deliver a total facilities management contract for 10 years. It is worth £5 million a year for the core sites, with the potential to provide additional services to any of the borough's 91 schools which choose to opt in. The 237 council buildings include offices, libraries, listed town halls, sports and leisure centres, cemeteries and residential and sheltered housing. Together these have a floor area of more than 230,000 sq m. In addition the schools which may opt in, ranging from nurseries to high schools, have a total floor area of over 300,000 sq m.

The contract on behalf Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust is through Equitix which, in a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project, owns and operates seven sites in Leeds providing a range of mental health services. Interserve, which has been working with the Trust in other contracts since 1998, will employ an additional 150 staff to supply and manage a number of services worth in excess £50 million over a 19-year period.

The Middle East construction projects have been awarded to Khansaheb Civil Engineering, in which Interserve has a 45 per cent stake. Khansaheb originally built the Mall of the Emirates, held to be the third-largest shopping mall in the world when it opened in 2005. Majid Al Futtaim, the owner, has now engaged the company to undertake a £50 million project comprising a four-storey extension, additional parking facilities and a link to the Dubai Metro public transport system.

Meanwhile the multi-purpose hall being constructed for the Government Engineer's Office will feature an enormous clear span 120 metres square. This will be capable of being divided into four individual event areas using sliding and folding partition walls which will also form access corridors to service smaller events. Together with associated car parks, roads, loading bays, external works and landscaping the project has a value of approximately £50 million.

Adrian Ringrose, Interserve's Chief Executive, said, "These wins demonstrate that there are good opportunities in our markets, both in the UK and the Middle East. The sectors we are focused on are resilient and we are reaping the benefits of our strategy of developing long-term client relationships."