Qataris owe Carillion £200m for World Cup stadium deal

British firms face going bust after construction giant’s collapse, but ...

COLLAPSED Carillion was owed £200m for work on the 2022 World Cup as it plunged into crisis.

The construction group spent weeks fighting to get paid for work in Qatar, one of the world’s richest countries, which is hosting the football extravaganza in four years.

The company’s demise leaves thousands of small firms it owes money to facing heavy losses. It is feared up to 30,000 businesses may be facing losses totalling up to £1bn. But small companies may get less than a penny back for every pound they are owed, according to a report by accountant EY.

Carillion went into liquidation on Monday owing nearly £3bn after a series of contracts turned sour, including work in the Middle East.

The firm and its joint venture partner Qatar Building Company were awarded a £493m contract to work on the redevelopment of central Doha ahead of the World Cup in 2022.

But reports emerged last October that Carillion had not been paid for almost one year’s work, with developer Msheireb Properties said to be withholding cash amid a battle over amounts owed on either side.

Carillion bosses were said to be regularly flying out to Doha to try and get Msheireb to pay up.

Yesterday Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘The fallout from Carillion’s collapse is being exacerbated by the pernicious late-payment culture among big corporations.

‘Smaller firms and the selfemployed are likely to bear the brunt of this crisis while the corporate giants involved in this sorry saga are unlikely to pay up. We urge the Official Receiver and Insolvency Practitioner to take all steps necessary, including chasing money owed to Carillion for completed work, to ensure as many of the contracts that small businesses have agreed with the firm are honoured.

‘Failure to do so risks a severe domino effect, with firms folding and jobs lost all the way down supply chains.’

In July Carillion said it was getting out of work in the Middle East, writing down £470m on leaving the region and Canada. It also wrote down £375m on three public/private contracts in the UK, understood to be the £335m Royal Liverpool University hospital, the £350m Midland Metropolitan hospital and the Aberdeen bypass.

The business is thought to have tried to sell some of its Middle Eastern operations as part of efforts to come back from the brink, but all hopes of a rescue dwindled on Monday.

Leaders of the TUC, Unite and GMB met Business Secretary Greg Clark on Tuesday evening and warned him that workers should be protected.

Msheireb, which is backed by the government-backed Qatar Foundation, also claimed Carillion owed it money, according to reports last year.

It could not be reached for comment last night.