Amey books £200m loss over Birmingham troubles

Amey's parent company, Ferrovial, has reported a loss of some £141m in the first three months of 2018, mainly related to the fallout from the Birmingham PFI contract.

The company has been forced to set aside around £208m to tackle the possible losses from the Birmingham deal, which had been bogged in legal wranglings for some years, culminating in a Court of Appeal decision that went against it earlier this year.

In its quarterly statement the company said: 'Ferrovial, the world-leading infrastructure operator and manager of services for cities, reported a net negative result of -161 million euros in the first quarter of 2018 as a result of booking a 237 million euro provision for possible losses on Amey’s contract with Birmingham City Council.'

Ernesto Lopez Mozo, Ferrovial's, chief financial officer, said: 'We have seen very positive performance in the highways assets.

'The Birmingham provision is mostly related to CapEx, which is being brought forward from a later phase to the current performance obligation. Since we don't have revenues left for the current performance obligation we have to incur a loss but bear in mind this loss will be an improvement in the profitablity of the later phase in a similar amount. The provision also takes into account a higher level of performance deductions. Performance deductions that will be challenged.'

It also revealed that the 'decline in Amey’s activity in the United Kingdom also had an impact'.

The Birmingham deal aside, the business is doing well and saw a 3.3% growth and 'strong performance' in its main assets, particularly its toll roads in America. There was also a record year of traffic for Heathrow another one of key assets Ferrovial is involved in.