M&A

UK councils bet big on commercial projects before the pandemic hit. As the virus continues to wreak havoc on the retail and office sectors, Zak Garner-Purkis asks what the impact on these big regeneration projects will be?

In our second major analysis of industry payment-practice reports, Megan Kelly delves into the government data to identify the best and worst payers in the sector. We also look beyond the headline figures to uncover the often complex reasons why some companies appear able to settle their debts more swiftly than…

Laing O’Rourke revealed today that it managed to boost its profit in its last financial year, despite COVID-19 adding at least £16m to its costs. Its results for the year ending 31 March 2020 marked a break from previous years when legacy projects such as its costly Canadian PFI hospital…

Prompt payment has always been a hot topic of debate in the industry – and with finances having been severely stretched due to the pandemic, a recent roundtable brought together a virtual panel of experts to discuss how best to tackle late payment

It’s often been said that you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and there’s a basic truth to the observation. But like most pithy sayings, it can’t describe the whole story. One of the key facts it leaves out is whether your measurements arrive promptly enough. This was a detail…

Mace’s FY results for 2019 were published this morning, revealing a £570m drop in revenue. The company had flagged in 2018 that its revenue for that year had been exceptionally high due its work on a large data centre project. Positively, the decline in revenue did not hit profit, with…

Our exclusive analysis reveals a continuing trend of lower rewards across the industry’s top 20 highest earners at listed firms, with the UK’s largest contractors falling broadly in line with wider patterns of executive pay restraint

Morgan Sindall CEO John Morgan thinks COVID-19 has been a “wake-up call” for the industry, with restrictions forcing a reassessment of how businesses operate and leading to improvements. Morgan spoke to Construction News following yesterday’s trading update that revealed the company would beat an earlier full-year pre-tax profit forecast of…

Wates chief executive David Allen tells Ian Weinfass why the sector has thrived despite the crisis it faced in 2020, how this will help solve the skills shortage, and how he plans to grow his firm through its residential work

Amey’s huge 2019 loss grabbed the headlines yesterday, but its accounts for the year contained some other fascinating insights, writes David Price.