黑洞社区

McLaren Construction looks set to select only three contracts from the books of collapsed contractor Verry Construction, despite speculation it was looking to take over the whole firm.

According to sources familiar with the process, the Essex-based company has narrowed its focus to a trio of jobs from Verry鈥檚 portfolio of about 10 after examining the company鈥檚 books.

These are the 拢67.7m City of Westminster college in London, the 拢13m humanities centre for Queen Mary and Westfield College in London and the Kent 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future (BSF) contract, which has so far included two jobs worth 拢25m.

It is understood that another of Verry鈥檚 schemes, the 拢80m Oaklands College in St Albans, is to be taken over by Oxford-based Leadbitter.

One source said: 鈥淭hose are the three plum jobs as far as McLaren is concerned, although the situation is fluid and nothing has been signed yet.鈥�

Another person close to the situation added: 鈥淢cLaren has whittled it down to these three and they are the only jobs it is actively looking at.鈥�

McLaren declined to comment.

If the company鈥檚 bid for Westminster college is successful it would become the largest job McLaren has undertaken since it was founded six years ago.

According to another source, McLaren already has a skeleton team of three on site at the college in anticipation of taking over. Confirmation of the job could come early next week.

The remaining Verry contracts could be bundled together and sold by administrator BDO Stoy Hayward, which is understood to be the preferred route. Its other deals include the Hackney BSF contract, the 拢11.5m Futures College in Southend and a 拢10.4m residential scheme in Aylesbury.

Leadbitter declined to comment on the speculation it would take over the Oaklands job.