Prater’s brand name, management and 300 staff and workforce will remain unchanged by the acquisition.

The Lindner Group entered the international facades market in 2006 when it purchased the staff and assets of the renowned Schmidlin (UK) to form Lindner Schmidlin Facades.

Its UK operating arm was recently renamed Lindner Facades and will now use Prater as a springboard to create a dominant force in UK cladding and curtain walling.

Jürgen Wax, CEO of Lindner Group UK, said: “Prater is a highly reputable and profitable entity with a trading history of 60 years, so we are really looking forward to sharing business with them.

“We expect significant synergy effects for both parties in sales, manufacture, design, engineering, product development, implementation and international expansion.”

Michael Prater, chairman of the Prater board, said: “The two family businesses are an excellent strategic and cultural fit.

“Lindner provides us with an excellent opportunity to expand our business activities to an international level.”

Prater operates out of seven outlets, including fabrication plants in Thurrock and East Sussex.

With an annual turnover of £65m, Prater is ranked first among the UK’s specialist external envelope contractors.

Disciplines include rainscreen and rendered façade systems, composite cladding, glazed curtain walling, single-ply membranes, structural waterproofing as well as aluminium and traditional metal standing seam roofing systems.

Prater was one of the last long-established UK cladding contractors and counts the Emirates Stadium, Westfield White City, Olympic Stadium and various airport schemes among its recent flagship projects.

The operation is dwarfed by Lindner Group which turns over around £600m a year, managing production plants and subsidiary companies in more than 20 countries from its head office in Arnstorf.

The consolidation move by a big European firm is the latest to rock the specialist contracting sector.

Last week Beaver 84 fell to French scaffolding giant Altrad, while in the M&E contracting sector Dutch giant Imtech swooped on North West building services specialist, the Smith Group.