Firm blames Crossrail and Nottingham tram deals for slump

Bruno Dupety

Source: Tom Campbell

Vinci said its Taylor Woodrow civil engineering arm racked up close to £14m in losses last year which helped cut pre-tax profit by more than a third last year.

The firm said the division posted a loss of £13.6m which it said related to closing out a scheme it signed in 2011 to extend the Nottingham tram, which has cost the company more than £150m, as well as a loss on a new Crossrail maintenance depot at Old Oak Common in north-west London.

Its civils arm had revenue of £213m last year, compared to £205m the year before, with Vinci saying that its reliance on Crossrail and London Underground work would now be replaced by HS2 and Highways England schemes which it said would account for up to three quarters of its workload at the division over the next five years.

Revenue at its biggest business, building, slipped 5% to £401m with the firm saying the fall was down to delayed starts on jobs including the next phase of work at its New Covent Garden Market project which involves building a new market along with 3,000 homes and retail and office space.

Vinci said it had achieved 75% of turnover this year for the building division although it added that it still needed to land some jobs in London, the North and Midlands for those regions to hit their targets.

The firm’s UK boss Bruno Dupety (pictured) said: “2018 was a good year for the group, with a steady level of activity and a profit rate of 1.5%.”

Group turnover in the 12 months to December 2018 stayed flat at £873m with pre-tax profit down from £22.4m to £13.8m.

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