Property and facilities management company Irish Estates has announced a three-year €13.9 million all-Ireland deal through its subsidiary, Vector Workplace & Facility Management, to provide facilities management to 255 BT properties in Ireland.

The contract is designed to deliver cost savings, transparency and greater efficiencies accross the BT sites.

The bulk of the properties are in Northern Ireland with only 20 in the Republic. The properties involved include office blocks, engineering workshops, data centres and telephone exchanges.

Irish Estates is listed on Dublin's IEX and London's AIM markets.

Vector was set up in 1999 to facilitate a management buy-out of Hewlett-Packard's facilities management business and was acquired by Irish Estates in December 2004.

Irish Estates's shares ended the day up 9.8 per cent at €2.58 yesterday.

Commenting on the deal, Danny McLaughlin, of BT Ireland, said: "BT has long realised the benefits of an all-Ireland service for our customers and we wanted the same simple and complete service from our suppliers. By consolidating to a single contract with Vector, we can leverage greater efficiencies and cost savings on an all-Ireland basis."

The managing director of Vector, Martin McMahon, praised the work of Vector's staff in building up the infrastructure necessary to undertake such a contract.