Kier Group, the London-listed construction company, has pulled out of talks about a takeover that would have completed the break-up of what was once one of Britain’s biggest outsourcers.

Sky News has learnt that Kier abandoned negotiations to buy Tilbury Douglas, the construction arm of Interserve, in the last fortnight.

The talks had been taking place for a number of months, with Kier expected to pay less than £50m for Tilbury Douglas.

Interserve, which collapsed nearly three years ago, has already sold the remainder of its operations, including its support services arm to Mitie, the rival outsourcing group.

Last year the jewel in its crown, equipment services arm RMD Kwikform, was sold to France’s Altrad Group.

At its biggest, Interserve employed more than 45,000 people in the UK.

The reasons behind Kier’s decision to pull out of the discussions about the purchase of Tilbury Douglas were unclear on Monday.

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Kier has raised more than £500m in equity in two separate share sales in 2018 and 2021 as it fought to shore up its own balance sheet in the face of fears that it could follow rivals such as Carillion and Interserve into oblivion.

It sold its housebuilding arm, since renamed Tilia, to the private equity firm founded by prominent financier Guy Hands.

Kier is now run by Andrew Davies, an experienced industry figure who had been due to take up the top job at Carillion shortly after it collapsed in January 2018, as its new chief executive.

Both Kier and Tilbury Douglas declined to comment.

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