Problem job hits Broadway Malyan profit

Problems at an unnamed scheme in the UK have blown a near £3m hole in Broadway Malyan’s accounts, the company has revealed.

In its latest accounts filed at Companies House, the firm said it has been forced to book a £2.8m exceptional which it said “relates to an onerous mixed-use project in the UK” adding that it had “taken the current and expected future loss into this year’s accounts”. Broadway Malyan said the scheme “was entered into during the recent recession”.

The news meant that profit at the business nosedived 79% from last year’s £2.9m – although the firm remained in the black posting a pre-tax profit of just under £600,000 in the year to April 2016.

Turnover slipped 8% to £46m with overseas revenue down 12% - but workloads in the UK stayed broadly flat at £19.5m.

In a strategic report signed by managing director Gary Whittle (pictured), the business said overseas workloads had been hit by an economic downturn in China, a recession in Brazil and falling worldwide oil prices.

And he warned that workloads would continue to be hit by a weak global economy and said the UK had “cooled a little” following last June’s EU referendum and the decision to leave the bloc.

He said high end residential development had slowed meaning that it was “focusing our near-term strategic growth plans in other geographies and sectors”.

Whittle said it had won a number of contracts overseas, including a new office in Dubai for banking giant HSBC and its first major scheme in the US, a cruise terminal in Miami.

The firm employed 559 people at the year end – up from the previous 530 – with the highest paid director, who is not named, picking up £290,000, up from £208,000 last time.