Carillion unveils £1.15bn half-year loss

-BBC NEWS

Troubled UK building and services firm Carillion has said it made a loss of £1.15bn in the first half of this year and that its full-year results will be below current market expectations.

The firm said it had taken an impairment charge of £134m on its UK and Canadian construction businesses.

It had also made provision of £200m for losses on its support services contracts.

This is on top of an £845m write-off announced in July.

"This is a disappointing set of results," said interim chief executive Keith Cochrane, who took over following the resignation of Richard Howson in July.

Michael Hewson of CMC Markets told the BBC that Carillion's problem's stemmed largely from its construction business, because it had won major contracts on the basis of bids that were too low.

"They low-balled an awful lot of bid work and they're finding they can't make any money out of it and it's caught up with them," he said.