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Mace set up its consulting business, which is now set to be majority owned by Goldman Sachs, in 2004 at a time when it was best known for its construction management abilities.

It was initially known as Sense, changing its name to Mace six years later, with Steve Mason, one of several people who helped set it up, taking over at the start of 2017 after former Gardiner & Theobald partner Chris Goldthorpe, who had been in charge for 13 years, retired.

While its construction business might have revelled in taking on high-profile jobs that no-one else seemingly would, as every contractor knows the margins in the sector don鈥檛 compare to the ones raked in by consultants.

Winning the Shard transformed the perception of Mace from a boutique builder to one that was a major contractor. Most agree, the job made money 鈥� because if it hadn鈥檛, given Mace signed up for a fixed price on a 拢500m scheme, it would probably have gone bust.

In the midst of all this, the consulting business was keeping a lower profile but that changed when it picked up work on the 2012 Olympics as part of a consortium called CLM that included Laing O鈥橰ourke.

Construction continued to rack up the high-profile jobs and colds 鈥� the Nova scheme in Victoria was one 鈥� but consult was steadily growing revenue and profit. In 2021, turnover was 拢350m with chief executive Jason Millett saying last year the division could hit 拢1bn by 2030 and have 10,000 staff on its books.

He said the hybrid between construct and consult worked well. 鈥淲e have a unique model between construct and consult. Our construction knowledge on things like supply chain, contract administration, offsite, data, has helped the firm win global delivery partner programmes.鈥�

But out of the two, consult, with its eye-opening Hudson Tunnel project in New York, a job the firm saw as transformational for the business, would always be the easier one to sell if shareholders wanted to cash in. And investors would always be prepared to pump money into a business that made a pre-tax margin of just over 11% last year, as opposed to the thin pickings contractors have to put up with.

And, at some point, Mace had to bring in outside investors if it was to ever have a chance of competing with global delivery giants like Jacobs and Bechtel. The latter firm, older heads will remember, was at one stage the Blair government鈥檚 go-to troubleshooter when jobs started going wrong over here.

Goldman Sachs has $3.3tn (拢2.44tn) in assets under its management, while its private equity arm has invested 拢75bn since being set up in 1986. These are mind-boggling numbers and while some might lament another UK firm being picked off by a US business, most companies would find it difficult to resist selling up to them. In short, it鈥檚 a decision that makes sense.

What happens next is for speculation. Goldman Sachs could rename it, sell it on for a profit, list it, relocate its headquarters to North America which would seem a natural 鈥� and inevitable 鈥� move. Decisions for the future but history says the name will eventually go at least.

Mace says the deal is a good one for its construction business and it probably is. It took a hit last year and having a huge cash injection will recapitalise it and put it on a more even keel. This is the message Mace will be telling its construction clients in the coming days.

It鈥檚 not quite Laing being bought by O鈥橰ourke for 拢1 鈥� still the benchmark for this sort of stuff 鈥� or Davis Langdon selling up to Aecom. But, and there is always a but, this is a break-up of Mace as we know it and for that reason it is the end of an era.