Jarvis sells off mobile phone mast firm

Crisis-hit engineering group Jarvis, which is involved in a number of Public Private Partnership projects in Ireland, has sold a mobile phone mast company as part of a strategy to dispose of non-core businesses, it announced tonight.

Jarvis, which last week unveiled a survival plan after falling £246.7m (€374.7) into the red, said it had sold loss-making firm Ultramast for nearly £290,000 (€440,470).

It was bought by a joint venture company formed by investment bank Babcock & Brown and four previous managers of Ultramast.

Ultramast, which owns the rights to build mobile phone radio masts on the UK’s rail network, recorded pre-tax losses of £165,000 (€250,657) in the year to March 31 and employs four members of staff.

A further £1.8m (€2.7m) could be paid for the company over the next five years, depending on the number of masts it builds.

Announcing its annual results last week, Jarvis said it would dispose of a number of non-core businesses in order to reduce its £230m (€349.3) debt.

The strategy is part of a recovery plan that will see it focus on its road and rail businesses and stop taking on construction projects in accommodation services.

One of the areas for focus for the new Jarvis business will be rail renewals, which the company said last week had delivered new business levels beyond expectations.

It no longer carries out day-to-day rail maintenance after handing back its contracts to Network Rail.