Miller Family To Sell Business

The Miller family have put the house builders and construction group Miller up for sale.

Members of the Miller family, who together speak for 60% of the shares, have appointed accountants Ernst & Young to carry out a strategic review of their holding. This is expected to trigger a sale that could value the business at about £1.2 billion. This despite the fact that Keith Miller, the group chief executive, who controls 17%, is not part of the group.

Miller, is one of Britain’s biggest players in housing, commercial property and public-sector building contracts and was founded in Edinburgh 74 years ago. The group now employs about 2,000 people across the UK.

A source close to the shareholders said most of their wealth was tied up in the company, and they were hoping to take advantage of consolidation in the industry to diversify their holdings.

The Miller Group's pre-tax profits were up 5% to £35.8m in the first half of this year, on turnover of £527m.