Bovis `on offer'

P&O IS SAID to be in discussions to sell its construction subsidiary Bovis to Hochtief, the German construction and contracting business.

P&O floated its residential housebuilding arm Bovis Homes on the stock market last December, and had planned to make a similar exit from Bovis Construction before the latest round of turmoil hit the London stock market.

A trade sale is now seen as the only way to dispose of the construction business in the immediate future.