Bovis Lend Lease's parent company has expanded its European business with the purchase of UK developer Akeler Holdings.
Lend Lease's Luxembourg-based property investment arm, Global Properties, paid £294m for Akeler, which specialises in office parks.

Analysts said the deal could lead to Bovis carrying out development work for Akeler.

Akeler has 13 developments concentrated in the Thames Valley, Leeds and Glasgow. It also has holdings in Lisbon, Frankfurt and Munich. Akeler's tenants include the UK division of WorldCom, the bankrupt telecoms group.

n Bovis Lend Lease is favourite to pick up the first part of the £500m redevelopment of Battersea Power Station in south London – the £10m Grimshaw-designed site office building. Developer Parkview International received planning permission for the overall redevelopment – which includes hotels, a theatre, 750 flats and a leisure complex – from Wandsworth council last summer.