Amey's back on the Tube Lines track

Amey is to reunite with its partners in the part-privatisation of the London Underground.

The support services group's financial difficulties forced it to opt out of a £60m investment in December, prompting the other shareholders in the Tube Lines consortium, Jarvis and Bechtel, to step in.

Amey must find the money to buy back its original stake by the end of June or it will have to walk away from the deal. The project is likely to be particularly lucrative. Jarvis could earn £146m in profits over the next seven years, it revealed last week. Amey was considering the prospect of buying only half its stake back, due to lack of funds, but a restructuring of its debts and a new owner have improved its fortunes.

The Spanish construction company Ferrovial, which bid £81m for Amey in March, has told its new subsidiary it will provide the funding to allow Amey take part in the Tube deal.

"Amey is delisting [from the London Stock Exchange] on the 26 June, and after that it will place a letter of credit with Tube Lines," said Mel Ewell, Amey's chief executive.

Tube Lines is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the Northern, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines on London's Underground. The consortium intends to invest £4.4bn over the next seven years. A Tube Lines spokesperson said trains under its control were already cleaned more regularly, and new technology had been put in to get rid of graffiti and to clean the seats. Large contracts will shortly be awarded for the renewal of the track.

While the problems at Amey endangered the Tube Lines deal, there was also opposition from the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who tried to block the part-privatisation of the London Underground in the courts.

Amey has also appointed a new finance director, Jose Leo, from within Ferrovial. The position had been held by Eric Tracey, who was drafted in last year from accountants Deloitte & Touche to restructure the business after Amey's financial crisis. He followed Michael Kayser, who spent just five weeks in the role. "Eric has done an outstanding job for us," said Mr Ewell. Mr Tracey will leave in July.

Amey board's has also seen changes in its non-executive directors. Lord Patten, John Biles and Gordon Page have resigned, but Inigo Meiras, Jose Maria Perez Tremps, Nicolas Villen and Santiago Olivares have been appointed.