Carillon, the second largest Government contractor, went into liquidation on Tuesday morning.
Around 20,000 jobs are at risk after bosses at the stricken firm said they had "no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect”.

Carillion tried to sober up too late: the hard work of cutting debt and dividends only began in 2017. Short-sellers sniffed blood as money owed to the company from clients piled up.

The U.K. government also seems to have had an equally over-optimistic approach to Carillion. Last year, as Theresa May promised a modern industrial strategy fit for "Global Britain", her government was still doling out contracts to Carillion even after it issued profit warnings.

The structural problems in the U.K. market, though, go way beyond Carillion. The market is fragmented and highly competitive. Operating margins are estimated to be in the low single digits, about half those of France.

[...]

Even without Carillion, the British market remains fragmented, according to UBS analysts. With jobs and the prosperity of Brexit Britain at stake, Carillion's demise will hopefully jolt the U.K. into improving its procurement market. That means, at least, paying more attention to a contractor's financial health while also doing what it can to keep trading ties with European partners, including France. There are lessons here for all.

ps. this is not, as far as i am aware, EU related ...

Partly is
After the Brexit vote, a lot of the investors & developers etc pulled their projects from the UK and a lot of materials for projects that were underway were also bought in Euro's so when the vote caused the pound to drop in value, it killed their margins, caused losses and wiped out operational budget.

At the end of 2016, they were blaming the reorganisation of Whitehall after the Brexit vote for the slow down of orders.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... referendum

Here the blame is laid more squarely at aggressive expansion and trying to recover too late.

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articl ... and-brexit

The article continues:

i see no comments on the workers that have lost jobs and the management taking massive salaries and bonuses, shareholders being paid dividends and pension funds going bust. but that is to be expected.

well done you two the spearhead of the remoan camp bringing forth more project fear, please keep it coming i just love it ...

Sympathy isn't news or related to a news thread (which by definition should be factual & not a badly written opinion piece).

Until the autopsy has happened, there's not enough evidence to say exactly where the blame is. We'll probably never know the full story, far too much government involvement in that company for the truth to come out.

I'm quite surprised you'd have any sympathy at all, most of the workers were European. It was the Brits running the show that made all the money then screwed everybody else.

This is what happens when the lowest bidder wins contracts. Companies risk underestimating costs to ensure they get the work. Any company that put in a accurate bid for a huge project would never be awarded the work as other companies would 'offer better value'.

These “better value” deals always inflate and expand afterwards anyway, as the true cost of the job become apparent. People fuss and moan that costs spiral, but I can’t help thinking that the true costs are surfacing.

HS2, Hinkley Point, even Bradwell’s eventual upgrade, will cost a lot more than the numbers on the contracts.

At least 377 Carillion staff to be made redundant.
Official receiver says axe will fall on back-office roles but adds 919 jobs have been saved.

The receiver is still sorting through Carillion’s contracts to determine the future of more than 18,000 staff, the remainder of the company’s UK workforce.

The staff who are set to keep their jobs work in Carillion’s infrastructure division, as well as on government and construction contracts.