黑洞社区

Balfour Beatty chief executive Leo Quinn has admitted the construction group鈥檚 results today make for 鈥渉orrible鈥� reading, .

Speaking to 黑洞社区, Quinn said he could not rule out the possibility either that in six to twelve months results could get worse still or that the firm may have to make a further writedown on the value of UK construction contracts over that time period.

This morning the firm made a further 拢118m writedown prompted by UK construction losses 鈥渇ollowing an assessment of the existing risk provisions by the board鈥�.

Commenting on the results, Quinn said: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e horrible and not a good output for our employees and shareholders. I hope that would be the worst [but] you have to hope for the best and plan for the worst.鈥�

On whether there may be futher writedowns, Quinn said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at the whole portfolio. 拢8.9bn [turnover] is a big big company. We know there are uncertainties [but] I鈥檇 be disappointed if that was the case.鈥�

Quinn also declined to rule out that the firm鈥檚 鈥楤uild to Last鈥� efficiency programme will not include redundancies and office closures in the UK as the firm attempts to cut 拢100m from its 拢500m global overheads. He said the majority of the savings would come from 鈥渘atural attrition鈥�.

Quinn said he had 鈥渃onfidence鈥� in the management team responsible for turning around the UK construction divisions with the biggest problems - the M&E division known as engineering services and the regional business - including Nick Pollard, who was given responsibility for overseeing the two divisions earlier this year, and Mark Hoyland, managing director of engineering services since October.

Commenting on problem jobs in these divisions, Quinn added: 鈥淭he contracts are challenge but will be resolved in the next 24 months, with the majority in 12 months. It will be systematic, one contract at a time.鈥�

He said the firm had put 鈥渂id processes in place鈥� to ensure similar problems did not arise on future contracts.

Quinn added: 鈥淭his is a large company, with 拢8.9bn of revenue and 36,000 employees. This is a complex transformation and this is very very early days. There are an awful lot of uncertainties out there. [But] these problems will pass with time.鈥�

Quinn said his priorities for the futhure were building Balfour Beatty 鈥渋nto a world class company鈥�, making it 鈥渢he best employer so that people want to come here鈥� and ensuring workers鈥� safety on sites.

Quinn joined Balfour as chief executive at the start of this year, after the period covered by this set of results.