The market for building prod-ucts is unlikely to recover before 2011 and will not plumb a low point until the middle of this year, according to Geoff Cooper, Travis Perkins chief executive.

Announcing plans to raise a net £300m ($450) from shareholders to pay down net debt at the UK’s second-largest listed builders’ merchant, Mr Cooper cautioned that recent signs of life in the construction market were likely to prove short-lived.