Balfour Beatty rejects John Laing Infrastructure Fund £1bn offer for investment unit

Britain's Balfour Beatty has rejected a £1bn offer from John Laing Infrastructure Fund for its investment unit.

Balfour said the offer fell significantly short of its own valuation of its public-private partnership asset portfolio.

JLIF only confirmed at the beginning of the month that it would finance the offer by launching a rights issue.

Balfour Beatty has a market capitalisation of £1.26bn, while JLIF's stands at around £1bn.

The firm has fought off an all-share takeover bid from Carillion, which was worth around £2bn.

Its shares also plunged by over 20% in September after the group said that profits would be roughly £75m lower than expected in its construction services division.

In light of this, Balfour appointed auditing firm KPMG "to undertake a detailed independent review of the contract portfolio within Construction Services UK".

Balfour Beatty shares remain stable around the 186.50p mark despite the news of a rejected offer.