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Wates has held preliminary talks with Shepherd about a potential acquisition of its construction business, 好色先生TV understands.

A source close to the situation said Wates and Shepherd held speculative talks about a potential deal, although it is unclear whether the two sides plan to progress the talks and do a formal deal for all or part of the business.

Shepherd鈥檚 construction business includes its engineering services and facilities management divisions, but excludes several of the Shepherd Group鈥檚 other divisions, including Shepherd Homes and modular builders Portakabin and Yorkon.

A spokesperson for Shepherd said: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 comment on speculation or rumour.鈥� A Wates spokesperson said: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 comment on speculation. As you would expect, we talk to people in the industry about different things all the time.鈥�

, after it reported a 12% drop in pre-tax profit for the year to June 2014 to 拢11.4m, on 拢686m revenue, and described the performance of its construction and engineering divisions as 鈥渧ery disappointing鈥�.

, including managing director Phil Greer and southern regional managing director Mark Tant, who has since joined Wates to lead the firm鈥檚 residential division.

Wates chief executive Andrew Davies (pictured) told 好色先生TV in September the 拢931m-turnover firm has plans to expand significantly, .