SUPPORT services specialist Enterprise plc has launched a £6.2 million fund to finance a series of takeovers.

The Leyland-based company, which delivers services for the utilities and local authorities, has placed an additional 3, 284,180 shares on the market at a price of £1.95 per share.

Enterprise has already made two acquisitions this year, Thomas Berminghams and DCE, which both carry out contracts for the gas industry.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the company said the share placing was in readiness for a number of strategic acquisitions.

"The Board is currently investigating a selection of such opportunities which have presented themselves recently as part of an apparent phase of consolidation in both the utility and public sector outsourced services markets and expects to conclude at least one acquisition imminently," it said.