Investors take fright as profit warnings soar to nine-year high

摘要

Contractors already reeling from financial woes in the first half of this year have been told there will no respite in the short term with the number of profit warnings expected to reach a nine-year high and access to credit drying up. Listed firms forced to tell investors they are revising down their numbers so far in 2019 have included Kier, which has also announced it is getting rid of 1,200 people by the middle of next year, Galliford Try, which continues to be hobbled by problem contracts in Scotland, and Costain which last month shocked the markets when it said delays to schemes would hit its year-end figures. Ian Marson, the UK head of construction at Ernst & Young, said the volume of profit warnings since the beginning of the year is expected to push the 2019 figure beyond levels not seen since the turn of the decade when the sector was in the teeth of the recession.