Now Carillion faces watchdog accounts probe

EMBATTLED builder Carillion is being investigated by the City watchdog over the information it divulged to investors ahead of a disastrous trading update.

Shares in the government contractor have crashed more than 90pc since a devastating update on July 10 last year when it wrote off £845m of business and warned of ballooning debts.

With contracts going sour and cash not coming in fast enough, it suspended dividends and has since issued two more profit warnings.

The Financial Conduct Authority is now investigating the ‘timeliness and content’ of announcements made by Carillion between a positive trading update on December 7, 2016, and the disastrous one of July 10.

Carillion said it was cooperating fully with the FCA, while the FCA declined to comment further.

It is a further blow for the once- mighty firm, whose projects include work on the HS2 rail link, Battersea Power Station, Channel Tunnel and Oman Royal Opera House.

Yesterday, further delays also emerged to its £335m Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which had been due to finish at the end of February.

Shares slumped 5.4pc, to 17p, valuing the firm at just £73.5m. That compares to a value of just over £1bn a year ago.

In its full- year results in March 2017, bosses announced plans to increase the dividend by 1pc and said the business was on a good platform. In May 2017, chief executive Richard Howson, 49, who has since quit, told the annual general meeting that trading conditions were unchanged and the firm had made an encouraging start to the year in terms of winning new business.

Analysts now believe the company has around £1.5bn debt. It has won new contracts including one from the Ministry of Defence.

Last month it moved forward the start date for new chief executive Andrew Davies, 53, to January 22 from April 2.