The Lakehouse board has signed heads of agreement to sell its construction and property services divisions to focus on compliance and energy services instead.
The businesses being sold comprise the original Lakehouse core activities plus the acquired business of Fosters. The buyer is described as “a team of sector specialists”.
In the six months to 31st March 2018 the construction and property services divisions made a loss of £11.8m on revenues of £41.3m (2017 H1: £61.8m). The associated cash outflow for the period was £9.8m. At 31st March 2018, assets held for sale were £24.1m and liabilities held for sale were £24.2m.
Property services returned to “operational stability, if not profitability” but construction was impacted by project delays. It was profitable at an underlying trading level but performed below expectations.
Chairman Bob Holt said that he believed that “without the constraints of a Plc environment, they will be successful”.
Lakehouses’ interim revenue from continuing operations grew by 3% to £91.1m (2017 H1: £88.0m) with underlying pre-tax profit of £1.9m.
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