John Laing
Laing Homes is in the top ten of UK housebuilders and manages more than 1,000 tenders a year.[1] In 2002 it announced a pre-tax loss of £18.6m on turnover of £559.3m. Profits were hit by a £38.3m exceptional charge for writing down the value of assets and losses on disposals, while revenue was cut by half due to the sale of the firm's housebuilding division.'[2]
Like most construction companies Laing has a 'group strategy of exiting from construction' in favour of PFI.[3] Laing Roads, part of John Laing Plc recently won a £120 million public and street lighting contract for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. This follows its award of the Walsall street lighting contract in March 2002, and has led it to become the leader in PPP/PFI infrastructure projects.[4] PFI specialist subsidiary, Laing Investments, made a pre-tax profit of £14.9m and expects to add a further £3m to the figure as a result of the eight PFI projects acquired from Amey.[5]
In allowing Laing to take these PFI projects, local authorities have obviously ignored Laing's previous PFI work on the Manchester Metrolink. In 2001, Altram Manchester, created by Laing, Serco and the 3i Group, manged to lose an extra 54% (£5.96m) on the previous year.[6]
Altram’s accounts, which show that the company has breached the terms of its banking covenants, were initially due to be filed in October 2002 but Altram has consistently failed to comply with Companies House deadlines. Altram, which had senior bank loans amounting to more than £59 million at the end of 2001, faced interest charges of almost £7.8 million during 2001, although it made an operating profit of only £1.7 million.[7]
The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) is terminating Altram’s running of Metrolink as part of a further extension of the service. It will announce the winner of the new contract in early 2004. Laing is understood to be looking forward to walking away from the project.
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ See: http://www.buildonline.com/oursolutions/casestudies.asp Viewed: 22.01.04
- ↑ Unison Companies Update,' Unison, 09.04.03. See: http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B798.pdf. Viewed: 26.01.04
- ↑ 'What a carve up!' Solomon Hughes, Red Pepper, 01.05.01. See: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/natarch/solomon.html. Viewed: 28.01.04
- ↑ 'Construction Firms win £120 million contract,' 24.12.03. See: http://www.pinsent.com/press/press/dh24dec3.htp. Viewed: 21.01.04
- ↑ 'Unison Companies Update,' Unison, 09.04.03. See: http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B798.pdf. Viewed: 26.01.04
- ↑ 'Manchester PFI tram firm sees losses soar,' Mark Court, The Times, 04.04.03. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-633804,00.html. Viewed: 23.01.04
- ↑ 'Manchester PFI tram firm sees losses soar,' Mark Court, The Times, 04.04.03. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-633804,00.html. Viewed: 23.01.04
