The restructure comes after group construction profits crashed two-thirds last year

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Skanska has launched an overhaul of its UK business just weeks after problems in the local market were flagged as a major factor in the Swedish contractor’s freefalling profits.

Announcing its 2017 results last month, chief executive Anders Danielsson said in future it would “focus on the core business” in the UK, where it employs close to 6,000 people.

The UK business, which last year took a SEK360m (£32m) writedown on a number of unnamed projects, has confirmed there will be job losses as part of the restructure.

The company will be split into building and building services divisions, with infrastructure sitting in a division of its own.

Changes to UK operations are part of a global restructuring plan announced after it was reveald the group’s construction business operating profit had crashed by two-thirds to to SEK1.2bn (£107m) in 2017.

Gregor Craig, Skanska’s UK chief executive, said: “We are proposing these changes to simplify our structure, making it easier for customers to do business with us. These measures will also make us more efficient.”

The building division will be run by MD Steve Holbrook, while Adam McDonald will be leading the building services operations.

Andrew English, previously commercial director for civil engineering, has been appointed MD of infrastructure operations.

The restructuring is set to formally begin on Monday and is expected to take a number of weeks to complete.

Earlier this year, Skanska it was cutting 3,000 jobs from its 41,000 strong global payroll in a move to improve falling profitability. The majority of these will be from its Poland business which racked up a SEK500m (£45m) writedown last year.