I’m not going to give you the names because you’ll publish it and I’ll have the bloody headhunters nicking my top people.” Kier chief executive Andrew Davies has not spent the past two-and-a-bit years rebuilding a business that was at one stage talked about as the next Carillion only to see staff picked off by rivals.

Google Kier and among the most-typed questions in the search engine are: “Is Kier going under?” and “Are Kier in trouble?” If he had his way, Davies would no doubt add “not any more” where, after the past couple of months, the feeling is that a corner has once and for all been turned.

The names he won’t reveal are those of the people who helped to stitch together the deal with the private equity business run by financier Guy Hands which paid £110m for Kier Living in April, the housing business that has since been renamed Tilia Homes. Davies himself took a backseat role, signing it all off of course, but for the most part the deal on Kier’s side was led by his chief financial officer Simon Kesterton and “a very talented person in the organisation who’s really experienced in M&A”.

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