Carillion reports £1.15bn loss

Troubled infrastructure giant Carillion has booked mammoth half-year losses of over £1 billion as the company again warned over its performance.

Carillion, which has around 43,000 staff worldwide, has been thrown into crisis since a hefty profit warning in July, which sent its shares tumbling by more than 70% in one week.

Shares took another double-digit hit in morning trading yesterday as the firm revealed pre-tax losses for the six months to June 30 of £1.15bn.

The figure includes an £845 million write-down relating to support services contracts and a goodwill impairment charge of £134m linked to construction activities in the UK and Canada.

It has also made a fresh £200m provision for support services contracts.

As a result, Carillion said full-year results will be lower than current market expectations with total revenue expected to come in between £4.6bn and £4.8bn, down from £4.8bn to £5bn.

On an underlying basis, pre-tax profit plunged 40% to £50m.

Interim boss Keith Cochrane described the results as “disappointing”.

He said: “This is a disappointing set of results which reflects the issues we flagged in July.

“We now expect results for the full year to be lower than current market expectations. No one is in any doubt of the challenge that lies ahead.”

Speculation has been growing that a takeover bid for Carillion is in the offing.

Shares in the group closed down 13p at 51.25p following trading yesterday.

A Carillion engineer. The firm’s shares took another battering yesterday after it reported losses of more than £1bn.