Civils specialist now expects to end up £22m in red

The scale of the task facing the incoming boss of NMCN was underlined in a trading update yesterday with the civils specialist revising the amount it is expected to lose in 2020 upwards for a second time.

Lee Marks, who has been with NG Bailey for more than seven years, will join in the first half of this year and replaces John Homer, who left in September last year after more than four years at the company.

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Problem water contracts have added a further £5m to the firm’s expected 2020 loss

The firm said the exact date when Marks, Bailey’s group commercial director and who was also commercial director at Galliford Try’s building business, will be announced at a later stage.

But NMCN said it is now expected to report 2020 pre-tax losses of £22m – up from a previous estimate of £16.5m and an original projection of losses between £13.5m and £15m.

It blamed the latest revision on two problem water contracts which it said had racked up an extra £5m in losses last year. “A significant proportion of these losses are attributable to covid-19 and programme delivery delays, as well as costs associated with process commissioning and handover,” it added.

The firm said it expects to release its 2020 full-year results at the end of April.

For 2019, NMCN posted a pre-tax profit of £7.4m on turnover of £405m.