Keller sells warehouse freehold for £62m; says current trading ahead of 2016

Keller acquired the property in May 2016 as part of a settlement agreement in connection with a contract dispute on a project completed in 2008. Since that time, the group has received around £4m of rental income, which it said had been treated as an exceptional item.

Most of the proceeds will be used to repay the £48m bank facility raised for the original acquisition of the property, Keller said.

The property is held on the group's balance sheet at a value of £54m and the sale realises a profit of £8m before costs which will be included as an exceptional profit in Keller's 2017 interim results, the company said.

In a separate announcement on current trading, Keller said both revenue and profit in the four months to the end of April were ahead of last year and there had been "no significant change in market trends" since it reported full year results in February.

"Our North American division has had a solid start to the year, albeit behind the very strong first four months in 2016. Europe, Middle East and Asia has continued its growth trend of recent years, helped by ongoing good contract execution on large projects. Asia-Pacific's results show a significant year on year improvement with encouraging growth in revenue although, as expected, the division still recorded a loss in the period," Keller said.

It added that tendering activity and contract awards remained "generally healthy" with the order book increasing during the year and work to be undertaken over the next 12 months 15% higher than at the same time last year.