French-owned M&E contractor Spie returned to profit in the UK last year after a round of job cuts and offloading a major loss-making business.
The building services and FM contractor sold its loss-making distribution and transmission business to Keltbray last Summer as part of the turnaround programme.
As a result of selling transmission contracts, revenue dipped 5% to £229m, while Spie delivered a pre-tax profit of £7.4m compared with a £28m loss the year before.
The performance was helped by a £19m write back from main holding company Spie UK to cover debts owed to it by another group business Spie Leven.
The pre-tax figure also included a near £12m loss from the discontinued activities of the transmission and distribution arm.
Spie also paid out £1.4m in restructuring costs as average headcount fell by around 350 to 3,257 staff.
Robert Goodhew, chief executive of the Spie UK Group, said the main Spie contracting business, formerly called Spie Matthew Hall, said that operating margin for the business rose slightly to 4.5% from 4.3% last time.
from Construction Enquirer http://bit.ly/2IWUhcn