Contractor Birse has announced an 82% drop in pre-tax profit for the 12 months to 30 April, compared with the previous year.
The fall was expected after the contractor made a £5.5m loss on the Leicester City football stadium contract last October.

Pre-tax profit for 2003 stood at £1.2m, whereas the 2002 interim figure was £6.7m.

The write-down is part of the repercussions of the failure of ITV Digital last year. Leicester FC went into administration after the broadcaster terminated its contracts.

Martin Budden, managing director of Birse, said the company was not expecting to recover what it was owed for the stadium.

We had a 29% profit increase before tax and exceptionals

Peter Watson, Birse chairman

He said the Leicester debacle, combined with the fall in the football stadium market, had led to some management redundancies in the stadiums division.

The firm emphasised that its underlying business was strong – turnover was £483.3m, only slightly down on the £487.2m figure turned in for the 12 months ending on 30 April 2002.