A Sussex plant hire firm has sold one of its subsidiaries in a £3 million deal.

Experts at at the Brighton office of corporate finance advisers Mazars Neville Russell assisted in the sale of the plant businesses of Chichester Plant Contractors, part of the privatelyowned Geoffrey Osborne Group, to Speedy Hire, a listed company with a market capitalisation of £149 million.

For Mazars, the transaction added to a growing list of company sales and came hard on the heels of the sale of the Brightonbased C-Side pubs and clubs chain.

With interests in building and civil engineering, rail, road, stonemasonry, housing and property maintenance, the Geoffrey Osborne Group has a turnover of more than £150 million.

Speedy Hire changed its name from Allen plc last year when it sold its house building and construction divisions to concentrate on construction equipment hire and complementary businesses.

Andrew Osborne, finance director of the Geoffrey Osborne Group, said:

"Given the complexities of the deal we needed specialist corporate finance help and we were delighted that Mazars Neville Russell could assist us."