Tilbury finance director Stuart Lee said the sell-off, predicted by 好色先生TV last June, meant that 80% of the firm鈥檚 business was now in support services-related activities.
This move follows the example of former contractor Amey, which reinvented itself as a support services company from a construction and building materials firm last year.
Support services companies, with their steady, long-term income streams, are generally regarded by the City as more attractive investments than cyclical construction stocks.
Lee said a final decision on the sector switch was 鈥渙ut of Tilbury鈥檚 hands鈥� because of stock market requirements, but added that it was now 鈥渁n obvious objective鈥�.
Last year, Tilbury bought facilities management firm Bandt for 拢75.3m, which took it a step away from contracting. Tilbury now focuses on long-term maintenance work for industrial and property clients as well as negotiated new-build work for large, repeat clients.
It has already stopped building houses in England, and Tilbury chairman Mike Bottjer said the Scottish business, Tilbury Douglas Homes, no longer fitted in with his long-term strategy. He added that the disposal would provide funds for 鈥渢he further development of support service operations鈥�.
Lee said the company was considering 鈥渁 whole range of acquisition opportunities鈥�.
The homes business, which operates from Edinburgh to Glasgow and as far north as Stirling, made a pre-tax profit of 拢4m in the year to 31 December 1999. It built about 400 houses for an average selling price of 拢80 000.
Persimmon chief executive John White said the acquisition would mean Persimmon, which currently builds about 600 houses a year in Scotland, would build well over 1000 units in the country this year.
As part of the purchase, Persimmon gets 16 new sites plus further interests in partnership housing schemes. It also adds 1000 plots to Persimmon鈥檚 Scottish land bank. This now totals 3100 plots with planning permission.
