Lend Lease Will Keep Valemus Separate in Short Term

Lend Lease Group, the Australian property developer that agreed to buy Bilfinger Berger AG’s local unit Valemus Ltd., said it will maintain the business as a separate entity in the short term.

“We see Valemus as a good business that has its own market presence, that has skills in certain areas,” Steve McCann, chief executive officer of Lend Lease, said in a telephone interview today. Valemus’s Abigroup, Baulderstone and Conneq are “very strong brands, and the brands will remain separate for the time being, so for the short-term the cost synergies are unlikely to be material,” he said.