Pending approval from Carillion shareholders and consent from all the various clients, Serco will acquire 15 contracts to provide facilities management services to NHS sites across the UK, covering five acute hospital trusts and around 20 other public sector organisations.

The portfolio has current annual revenues of approximately £90 million.

Assuming that the contracts are all transferred, Serco will pay Carillion £47.7m. Full transition of operations is targeted to be achieved by the end of 2018.

Carillion will lose £1 billion from the value of its order book.

Keith Cochrane, Carillion’s interim chief executive, said: “I am pleased we have been able to successfully conclude this transaction which will contribute to our efforts to reduce net debt.”

Serco chief executive Rupert Soames added: “We look forward to taking on these high-quality, long-term contracts which will add significant scale to our Health business, and will enable us to further improve the quality and efficiency of services we provide to the NHS and our other customers.”