McLaren hit by losses on problem jobs

McLaren’s construction arm has posted a £15.4m pre-tax loss in its latest results after being hit by a “small number of loss-making contracts”.

In the financial results for its construction arm to the year ending July 2015, filed at Companies House, the contractor posted the pre-tax loss after recording a £4.3m pre-tax profit the previous year.  

But the division’s overall loss was reduced to £11.7m after it received a £3.7m tax rebate. It added that it has now completed these loss-making contracts.

Revenue was also down to £378m in the construction division, compared to £413m the year before.

McLaren said its “long duration and complex” projects were secured in “extremely competitive market conditions” and were completed in a period of “rapidly rising sub-contract prices”.

Commenting on the results, McLaren chairman Kevin Taylor said: “There are now promising signs that margins are improving across the whole construction industry.

“We see signs of this within our business and forecast a profitable outcome for our construction division for the current trading year.”

In a snapshot of the overall group results, which are expected to be filed by July this year, McLaren said group turnover was up to £449m, compared to £433m the previous year.

The firm said it made an overall profit £14m, up from £11m last year, after a strong performance in its property division – which it said posted a profit of £26m on turnover of £71m.