Balfour Beatty sells further 5% stake in Connect Plus

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has announced the sale of an additional 5% in Connect Plus, the company which operates the M25 orbital motorway, to funds managed by Equitix for £42m in cash.

The cash consideration is equivalent to the price of the earlier transactions on 21 and 29 December, and is in excess of the directors' valuation as at 30 June 2017. Balfour expects to make £22m in profit from the deal and said the proceeds will be used to pay down borrowings in 2018.

The company sold a 12.5% stake in early December, followed by an additional 7.5% stake later that month to Dalmore Capital. In total, Balfour has made £207m from the sale of 25% of its original 40% holding in Connect Plus.

For the year ended 31 December 2016, investments in joint venture and associates in relation to the group’s 5% interest in Connect Plus was £31m and it contributed pre-tax profit of £3m to the group’s results.

Chief executive Leo Quinn said: "This transaction again demonstrates the ongoing attractiveness of our infrastructure assets and is in line with our declared intent to maximise value for shareholders."

At 1415 GMT, the shares were down 1.5% to 276.30p.