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The appointment of Samir Brikho as chief executive of Amec means that no doubt remains: construction鈥檚 biggest group will split up by early 2007.

For nearly a year Amec has toyed with the idea of demerging into contracting and energy businesses, but has maintained the line that this is one of several options available to turn the group around after a jittery 2005. Others have included retaining the companies but running them as separate entities, and selling off smaller bits of the group.

But last month鈥檚 announcement that the 48-year-old Swede is to succeed Sir Peter Mason as chief executive from 1 October cracks that facade. Jock Green-Armytage, Amec鈥檚 chairman, has given Brikho until the end of the year to work out the details.

As one Amec insider says: 鈥淎 demerger is the base case, but this guy has got to deliver it, so it鈥檚 only right that it鈥檚 his decision.鈥�

In reality, the board has made the decision itself by unanimously agreeing to Brikho鈥檚 appointment. The Amec brand has always been set to remain with the more successful energy business if a break-up occurred, and would be the more highly valued of the two companies. And Amec has looked outside of the construction industry for its boss, with Brikho joining from Swiss energy group ABB.

One eagle-eyed construction analyst wryly smiles: 鈥淭he break-up is now inevitable, he won鈥檛 want to keep construction. I can鈥檛 see an energy man turning around and keeping a construction business that is dragging back the price鈥揺arnings ratio.鈥�

As a result the construction business, which made a pre-tax loss of 拢58m in last week鈥檚 interim figures, will be spun off and left to fend for itself.

Brikho鈥檚 language suggests a man with little time for businesses that might hurt his targets

Although most agree that this will be Brikho鈥檚 strategy, he is not a particularly well-known man.

Many energy and capital goods analysts have not met him because he has never sat on ABB鈥檚 board: 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 given any access to him,鈥� moans one.

However, he is a significant figure, having turned around the group鈥檚 oil and gas processes business, ABB Lummus Global.

Having taken orders for projects at the wrong prices, Lummus once posted a loss of $400m, but was $49m in profit last year. Brikho, who took over the business in 2003, takes much of the credit here and was rewarded at the start of this year with a promotion to head up ABB鈥檚 $5bn power systems business.

In a rare public foray at an analysts鈥� conference call in February, Brikho鈥檚 language suggested that he was a focused, direct man with little time for businesses that might hurt his targets. Asked about Lummus鈥� strategy, Brikho replied: 鈥淕ood market. Good strategy. Good portfolio and we continue. Execution.鈥�

One of the analysts on that conference call, James Stettler of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, says that Brikho 鈥渋s clearly very well liked鈥� at ABB. The way that more senior figures occasionally deferred to Brikho on the call is evidence of that, as is the fact that Brikho, who first joined ABB in 1983, was poached back in 2003 after a four-year hiatus with French transport and energy infrastructure group Alstom.

Stettler also points out that Brikho achieved success at Lummus by reducing the size of the firm. With experience of energy and reducing the scale of a business, he sounds like the perfect choice to cut Amec in two.