Contractor raising funds to help cover Aberdeen road job costs  

Aberdeen

Galliford Try’s rights issue designed to help cover the rising costs of its work on the troubled Aberdeen bypass has seen all but 8.5% of the shares taken up.

The contractor said 91.5% of the 27,741,204 new shares issued had been bought at 568p a share, equivalent to £144.2m, while its financial advisers were seeking buyers for the remaining 2,356,130 shares, worth £13.4m.

It launched the rights issue last month to raise funds to cover ballooning costs of work on the £550m Aberdeen road project (pictured), which is set to open this autumn, a year late.

Galliford Try had been working on the scheme with joint venture partners Balfour Beatty and Carillion, when the latter went bust in January.

The project had already been hit by delays caused by bad weather before Carillion’s collapse.