Will the real Carillion please stand up? Is the FTSE 250 support services and infrastructure company the Steady Eddie maintainer of roads and cleaner of hospitals that operates in Britain, the Middle East and Canada? Or is it the empire-building suitor of Balfour Beatty?
Carillion’s failed pursuit of Balfour last year was something of an aberration for those who have warmed to its pipeline of long-term contracts and attractive dividend yield. Richard Howson, the chief executive, bungled the acquisition and tried to play hardball by insisting that Balfour Beatty retained Parsons Brinckerhoff, its US engineering consultancy.
A cursory glance at the scale of the challenge facing Leo Quinn at Balfour suggests that this acquisition, like many others, would have been a wasteful use of shareholders’