SSE has bought back its former mechanical and electrical (M&E) contracting arm, now called Enerveo, three years after selling it.
Announcing the deal this week, an SSE statement said: “Enerveo has found it challenging to operate as an independent business.”
It did not reveal the value of the deal.
“Following the repurchase, SSE will now work with Enerveo management to conduct a review to develop and then implement a longer-term strategy for each part of the business,” it added.
The power giant offloaded the company, then called SSE Contracting, to private equity firm Aurelius for £27.5m in 2021.
At the time, Aurelius managing director Tristan Nagler said the company wanted to build its position in the M&E market and saw “considerable scope for consolidation” within it.
However, Enerveo, which was rebranded later that year, has been consistently loss-making since the sale.
Latest accounts, for the year ending 31 March 2023, showed a pre-tax loss of £10.2m on revenue of £256.7m.
In a report released with the results, directors said that the firm managed to “achieve a break-even position within the final quarter of FY23” and they expected a profitable 2023/24.
They described a “strategic realignment that involved exiting unprofitable projects and emphasising projects with higher gross profit potential”.
Redundancy costs shot up from £1.3m to £5.4m as the firm reduced its full-year wage bill by £6.8m to £64m.
In the precious year it made a pre-tax loss of £26.8m, which was attributed partly to the cost of rebranding and establishing new systems for operating as an independent company.
In 2020/21 the firm posted a loss of £22.6m.
