Murray Coleman’s exit from the UK business is the culmination of a two-and-a-half year strategy to turn the fortunes of Bovis Lend Lease around, but the outgoing chief executive said this week that it had “not yet reached the end of its journey”.

Coleman, who will return to Bovis’ Australian parent Lend Lease at Christmas, was brought into the firm in July 2006 after difficulties on a number of contracts which led it to make a £48m writedown.

Coleman said: “When I got involved with the business, it was to take it on a journey, and if that’s going to be worth the effort and heartbreak, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

He said: “In my mind, I was never going to achieve what I needed to in less than two years, but I didn’t have a precise date. Leaving is not something I gladly do, but the timing is right.”

Coleman’s exact role at Lend Lease has not been confirmed, but he said he would “definitely” retain involvement with the UK business.

One factor influencing Coleman was his desire to put his daughter into an Australian school. However, he faces one final battle before he leaves. “When we came to England last time she was 12 – that was a disaster, I was Satan. Now I have to take her back after she’s made friends here. But who says transporting a teenager halfway across the world is easy?”

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