Friend to replace Forrester as top man at John Laing

Andy Friend is to become the chief executive of John Laing, the former construction and housebuilding conglomerate that has transformed itself into an infrastructure investor.

He succeeds Bill Forrester, who will step back to the post of non-executive chairman from next month. Forrester has transformed the group since arriving in February 2002, selling Laing Homes to Wimpey for £295m and making a further £122m through an asset disposal programme.

Friend has been managing director of Laing Investments since 1999. He snapped up Amey's nine PFI equity stakes last year, a move that took Laing's PFI portfolio from 21 to 30 projects.

Stephen Rawlinson, analyst with stockbroker Old Mutual Securities, said: "Andy is very competent and puts a lot of energy into everything he does - he flew in from Australia just to be at Laing's latest results.

"Laing has continued to win new PFI deals since shedding its construction capability, although it would be more viable if it was to do more FM work. Andy and his guys are good businessmen and they compare favourably against other PFI teams."