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Jobs saved as J Murphy buys Carillion’s power business

Carillion's power contracts have been snapped up by J Murphy & Sons, in a move that will see the company be responsible for National Grid’s electricity overhead lines, substation and underground cable framework contracts.

The privately held engineering and construction company has acquired the framework contracts for an undisclosed fee and has announced that 22 former Carillion employees will move over. The frameworks cover replacement and refurbishment schemes on National Grid’s 33kV to 400kV transmission network in England and Wales. 

Contracts will specifically include the 20km, 400Kv overhead line from Richborough to Canterbury that will connect the Nemo Link interconnector from Belgium with the UK transmission network.

John Murphy, chief executive at Murphy, said: “This represents an excellent strategic fit for the business, allowing us to bring a full range of services across the power sector for our customers both in the UK and internationally. We have a strong sense of purpose, committed to improving lives by delivering world class infrastructure. I’m pleased to be able to work with our new partners Eltel to continue supporting National Grid and deliver essential energy infrastructure.”

British construction and services company Carillion, which employed over 43,000 people globally and 20,000 in the UK collapsed last month after a mounting debt crisis and gigantic pension deficit. The UK’s official receiver has already announced the redundancies of 829 Carillion staff but has managed to save around 1,000 former employees.

Murphy also becomes the joint venture partner of Eltel forming the MEJV on the overhead line and T Pylon framework.

If you would like to contact Ryan Tute about this, or any other story, please email rtute@infrastructure-intelligence.com.