UK's largest private contractor falls from Top 10

摘要

The UK's biggest private contractor has fallen out of the top 10 of this year's Top 150 contractors and housebuilders as the gulf in earnings between the two groups is once again exposed, writes Dave Rogers. Laing O'Rourke now sits at 11th place in the table, slipping from seventh last year with half the top 10 now made up of housebuilders - up from the two that made the list a decade ago. Balfour Beatty remains at the top, followed by Barratt and Kier. But following the collapse of Carillion, Balfour is by some distance the biggest contractor in the UK market with its £6.1bn contracting turnover, more than twice that of next placed Laing O'Rourke. The contrast between the two biggest contractors and housebuilders is underlined by the profits the four made last year. Balfour Beatty made £123m but O'Rourke, hobbled by a problem PFI hospital contract in Canada, stayed firmly in the red, racking up a near £44m pre-tax loss.