Interserve’s adjusted H1 profit falls 28.3pc

LONDON: British support services and construction company Interserve reported a 28.3 per cent fall in half-year adjusted operating profit, hurt by higher costs and restructuring actions. Interserve, whose activities range from providing care services for people in their own homes to repairing Britain’s historic Sandhurst military academy, said its outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

The company has been drumming up business for its support services division as construction in the UK has been hurt by supply chain failures and pricing pressure.

Interserve said actions at its UK Construction unit gained traction, but results were impacted by underperformance in a small number of contracts and the continuation of tough market conditions.

While most British support services firms have reported resilient trading since Britain voted last June to leave the EU, some companies have warned of a slowdown as the Brexit vote caused some customers to delay decisions.

Interserve’s adjusted operating profit fell to £46.1 million ($60.0 million) in the six months ended on June 30, from £64.3 million a year earlier.

The company reported a statutory profit before tax of £24.9 million, compared with a year-ago loss of £33.8 million, as it sold its energy-from-waste business.

Interserve said its work on energy-from-waste projects is progressing, but with some delays. It expect to complete “substantially” the construction of the projects in the first half of 2018. — Reuters