Yahoo Finance Galliford Try warns bad weather will add to cost of Aberdeen road project
Construction and housing company Galliford Try is facing higher bills to build Aberdeen’s troubled ring road after bad weather caused delays.
The construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route was a joint venture between Galliford Try, Balfour Beatty and Carillion, but when the latter collapsed in January, the remaining two partners were left to finish the job.
Galliford Try said in February that it expected the cost of completing the road to be £150m higher than it had originally thought.
But it revealed on Tuesday that the amount by which the exceptional charge will rise will depend on how much progress it makes over the summer. It is still expected to be lower than the £25m charge it took in the first half of the financial year.
“We have experienced some further cost pressure, principally from weather delays, which are likely to increase the exceptional charge in the current year,” chief executive Peter Truscott said.
“We are continuing to discuss several significant claims. Practical completion of the project is anticipated this summer.”
Despite the extra costs, Galliford expects to report full-year pre-tax profits in line with the current range of analysts’ expectations of between £138m and £146m.
Its housing business, Linden Homes, reported a slight drop in sales since the beginning of the year, at 0.71 sales per outlet per week compared to 0.74 this time last year, although the value of its reserved sales rose from £1.176bn to £1.183bn.
The Regeneration and Partnerships arm had a higher order book, at £1.15bn compared to £980m a year previously.
Shares in the company were down 0.41pc to 968.5p on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile Balfour Beatty said on Tuesday that it expected to take a cost provision of between £105m and £120m for its work on the Aberdeen road project.
The company's trading was in line with its expectations for the full year in an update to the market ahead of its annual general meeting on Thursday.
It said it had continued to make “good progress” on the second phase of its transformation programme. Chief executive Leo Quinn embarked on a sweeping reform of the company after it issued seven profit warnings between 2013 and 2015.
