IES sells electrical contracting business

Integrated Electrical Services, one of the largest contractor roll-up firms in the 1990s, has sold another electrical contracting business.

IES said it sold substantially all of the assets of one of its commercial business units for a sale price of approximately $3.5 million in cash. IES said last October it planned to divest several commercial businesses.

The business IES sold is Ace/Putzel Electric Inc., Macon, Ga. The sale of Ace/Putzel follows the sale of two other commercial business units late last year: Britt Rice Electric Inc., College Station, Texas; and Delco Electric Inc., Oklahoma City.

IES, Houston, is ranked the nation's biggest electrical contractor, according to EC&M magazine.

During 2004, the unit sold had revenues of $17.3 million and an operating loss of $500,000.

In other news, IES announced that it reached a new agreement with its surety bond provider to provide surety bonds to the company at acceptable rates. IES' CEO Roddy Allen said, “We view this agreement as positive and believe it will further expand the opportunities available to IES and its subsidiaries. We have issued several million dollars of surety bonds and expect to issue further surety bonds related to recently awarded projects. New surety bonds will be considered each month depending on certain conditions. Additionally, IES with the approval of its current surety provider is committed to bringing in a co-surety to further expand bonding capacity and fulfill our bonding needs.”