M Group Services has now completed the acquisition of Skanska UK’s infrastructure services operation, after originally announcing it had exchanged contracts for the £320m revenue business unit from Skanska UK in December 2020.

Following completion of the acquisition, a new operating business, Milestone Infrastructure Ltd has been formed. Milestone will operate as a standalone business delivering highways maintenance, street lighting and projects through existing, long-term relationships with local authority clients including Devon, Somerset, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Redbridge, Croydon, Lewisham, Peterborough, and Cambridgeshire.

In addition, teams delivering rail infrastructure services to Transport for London, will transfer to Milestone’s sister M Group Services Transport Division business, Dyer & Butler, to become part of a larger rail business supporting future growth more effectively.

Milestone will continue to operate under the leadership of managing director Adrian Cooke who will report to Neil Edwards, managing director of the M Group Services Transport Division.

Jim Arnold, chief executive, M Group Services, said: “We are acquiring a highly-regarded infrastructure service business with a first-class reputation for strong and innovative service delivery across its longstanding client base. This acquisition extends our scope of capability in the field of highways and rail infrastructure maintenance and provides our Transport Division with considerable additional resource, experience and expertise.”

Neil Edwards, managing director of M Group Services’ Transport Division said: “The addition of Milestone will create new opportunities to drive synergies with our existing operating businesses and add momentum to our exciting growth plans in the transport sector. Consistent with our previous acquisitions, we will provide Milestone with the financial and operational support to expand its presence and explore new market opportunities, whilst building on its established client relationships.”

Adrian Cooke, managing director of Milestone, added: “Over many years, we have established strong client relationships across the highways sector and this acquisition creates the platform for the next exciting stage of our growth. With the support of the Group, and the financial scale that this brings, we are perfectly positioned to identify new opportunities to expand our presence, cement our leading market reputation and to be the first choice for improving and maintaining highway infrastructure in the UK."

The acquisition of Skanska UK’s Infrastructure Services operation signals the continued growth of M Group Services. The acquisition takes the total number of strategic acquisitions made by M Group Services to 12 since December 2016.