Malcolm Hollis has pulled the plug in the final stages of a deal to sell to Capita following a series of unresolvable disagreements, including taking on any potential liabilities for work it had already carried out.
EG revealed last month (21 March, p42) that the building surveyor was in advanced talks to sell to the professional services giant before the deal broke down last Friday.
Malcolm Hollis senior partner John Woodman said: “There were a couple of things we could not agree on. Their board said they were not going to budge and neither were we. So we pulled the plug on it.
“One of the issues was over the ongoing liability for work we do and have done in the past. Capita did not come up with any answers as to how it would deal with the work we have already done in terms of taking on the liabilities. One would expect a big organisation like that to swallow it up. You have to have faith in the business you are buying and it seemed that Capita did not. We were put in an impossible position.”
Woodman added that the other main issue the firms could not agree on surrounded “complications with the compulsory purchase of the Battersea property Malcolm Hollis occupies”.
He said that Malcolm Hollis would not be looking to sell to another buyer and that he now planned for the company to remain independent and to avoid another “hugely distracting” acquisition process.
A Capita spokesperson added: “Following detailed due diligence and negotiations, Capita confirms that this acquisition will not be going ahead.”
