News: British Gas acquires Connaught's Rotherham site

Centrica plc, the parent company of British Gas, has announced that its British Gas Business division has acquired the assets of the gas and electricity services businesses of Connaught Compliance, for £11.2m.


Connaught Compliance has continued to trade as usual after parent company Connaught plc, the social housing group, entered administration earlier this month.

The acquisition will bring British Gas Business an approximately 600 strong work force including approximately 400 gas and electricity engineers who specialise in the installation, service and maintenance of commercial gas boilers and electrical systems, and in excess of 20,000 customer contracts, mainly in the private sector.

The deal includes Connaught Compliance Electrical Services based at Templeborough, Rotherham which was formed when Connaught acquired the Lowe Group (Holdings) Ltd, trading as Necta Ltd, for around £7.5m in 2008.

British Gas Business believes that the acquisition firmly establishes them in the provision of a broad range of business energy services, including energy management, energy efficiency, building controls and renewable technologies.

British Gas's future growth in energy services was strengthened in 2009 when they acquired Energy and Building Management Solutions Limited and Newnova Group Limited. British Gas has now made five acquisitions in the energy services and management sector.

Kanat Emiroglu, managing director of British Gas Business, said: "This acquisition gives us the platform that is needed to develop and rapidly build a complete energy solutions business and accelerates our growth strategy in the business energy services market, which is expected to be worth £2 billion by 2015.

"It's great news too for the highly trained Connaught engineer force; its 20,000 customers, as well as British Gas Business' existing customers."

Ian Carlisle, Chief Executive of Connaught Compliance, added: "We are delighted to have agreed this deal with Centrica. This fulfills a key element of our ongoing strategy to refocus Connaught Compliance on the core elements of our business whilst retaining the most comprehensive range of health and safety services in the UK.

"Centrica has made a compelling offer but crucially has an unrivalled ability to leverage economies of scale, expertise and resources in these markets, meaning that the deal makes sense not just financially but also in respect of securing the long term future of both businesses and their employees.

"The outlook for Connaught Compliance remains positive. The sale of our gas and electrical businesses will allow the management team to focus on growing and developing our core field and advisory services. We now have a unique opportunity to further refine and improve the way we deliver these services, align ourselves even more closely with our clients needs and build upon the quality and service that our customers demand."

British Gas Business website

Images: connaught.plc.uk