Balfour Beatty Engineering Services was created in 2009 as a merger of Balfour Kilpatrick and Haden Young, which had operated as individual specialist businesses after being bought by the group.

The group’s M&E arm has since been responsible for large losses due to problem contracts in the UK business.

New M&E group Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick will have a revenue of around £300m and will directly employ 2,200 workers.

The division will be led by managing director Simon Lafferty, who will continue to report to Balfour Beatty’s UK Construction Services MD, Dean Banks.

Mr Banks said: “The mechanical and electrical engineering sector is dynamic and requires breadth and depth of expertise, quality of delivery and significant capability. This move ensures we can fully leverage the huge experience and unrivalled scale we have within Balfour Beatty.”

Simon Lafferty added: “Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick will be one of the largest organisations of its type in the UK, offering a range of services and capabilities unique in the mechanical and electrical market.”

Among its current contracts are the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers project, Urenco’s Tails Management Facility project, Crossrail’s Woolwich and Whitechapel stations, a Gatwick Airport framework and three projects within the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s Sellafield site.

The company is also preferred bidder for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station’s main electrical package.

Balfour Beatty said the M&E arm would offer in-house modular manufacturing capability through Modular+ and its industrial mechanical pipe fabrication facility.

It will also target work in the process and defence, transport, healthcare, education, residential and commercial sectors.