News on 18 September 2000

The UK arm of Danish services company ISS is in negotiations to buy a substantial UK FM company. It is believed that the target is an independent FM business with a turnover of around £80m.

ISS, which has embarked on a re-engineering programme to transform itself from the world's biggest cleaning company into an international service business, has recently acquired a string of companies, including healthcare specialist RCO for almost £30m in May this year (see News story).

A share issue in June last year raised DKK 2.5bn (£206m) with the proceeds used to finance current and future acquisitions and to give ISS the financial strength to continue its consolidation of the service market. The FM acquisition by ISS UK has the full backing of ISS Chief Executive Waldemar Schmidt and Chief Financial Officer Eric Rylberg.