Market report: Galliford Try hit as contracts delay begin to get costly
Investors in Galliford Try today paid the price for its role in delays to major Scottish infrastructure projects.
Shares in the construction firm fell 125p, or 8.6%, to 1337p as it revealed the costs to finish two delayed joint venture projects would total £98 million.
Though the firm didn’t name the projects, they are thought to be the construction of the Queensferry Crossing next to the Forth Road Bridge — which is due to be finished by the end of the summer after bad weather hampered work — and the £550 million Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route in Aberdeenshire, which is expected to be finished next year.
“The bigger losses we suspect are on the AWPR as this does not finish until next year,” Peel Hunt analysts said.
Galliford, which recently walked away from a possible takeover of Bovis Homes, is working on the Aberdeen road project with Balfour Beatty and Carillion. Balfour’s shares fell 4.32p to 294.08p and Carillion slipped 5.7p to 222.1p.
Fresh jitters about China’s manufacturing growth hit metal prices, which caused mining shares to slide, with copper giant Antofagasta 30p cheaper at 778.5p.
That dragged the FTSE 100 down 24.24 points to 7225.81, with traders eyeing the latest meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers later today.
Sage was among the best performers on the back of strong first-half results, which reassured investors after the first-quarter “wobble”, as Numis put it. Shares in the accounting software firm rose 14.5p to 698p.
Morgan Stanley caused shares in Aggreko to power down 25.5p to 851p. The investment bank argued that the temporary power firm’s efforts to diversify into new markets such as solar diesel have “yet to show real signs of paying off”.
On the junior market, Dorcaster, the shell company of former AO World chairman Richard Rose, started life as Escape Hunt as its shares resumed trading after the £12 million reverse takeover of the company which runs live escape games. They were down 2.5p to 142p on their return to the market.
