Firm says problem job sent number tumbling

Aecom aecom offices hufton+crow 008

Aecom鈥檚 UK business saw a problem contract eat into the firm鈥檚 bottom line last year with pre-tax profit more than halving to 拢3.3m.

The consultant said profit slumped 52% in the year to September 2017 from 拢6.9m for the 12 months before.

It said profit was 鈥渓ower than expected due to the losses taken on an underperforming project in one of the company鈥檚 core market segments鈥.

In a report accompanying the accounts, signed by the firm鈥檚 chief executive David Barwell, who was appointed last November after the firm鈥檚 year end, Aecom said 鈥済rowth and market sentiment have been impacted by the ongoing Brexit negotiations and the collapse of Carillion鈥.

Turnover was up 14% to 拢403m with 95% of this 鈥 拢385m 鈥 coming from the UK. Its next largest market by turnover was Europe where it carried out just over 拢9m worth of work.

Earlier this year 黑洞社区 revealed that work on a 67-storey tower being built by Aecom in London鈥檚 Docklands had been stopped after the developer ordered a review of the 拢800m job which remains ongoing.

The US giant scored a coup after beating a number of traditional tower builders, including Multiplex, to the main contractor role signing a pre-construction services agreement with the developer, Chinese firm Greenland Group, last May.

Last month, smaller rival Alinea lured Aecom big hitter Alastair Kenyon to the 拢13m turnover business.

Kenyon spent nearly six years at Aecom and was the US giant鈥檚 head of offices in London where he was in charge of a team of 60.

Aecom employs nearly 4,500 people in the UK and moved its head office from London鈥檚 MidCity Place to the Multiplex-built Aldgate Tower (pictured) in east London 18 months ago.

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