“You see before you a faded shell of the person I was six months ago” – so joked chief financial officer Mark Whiteling as he opened Interserve’s full-year results presentation this week. Laughs aside, looking at the frankly horrible set of figures it’s not hard to believe him. Having delayed releasing the contractor’s 2017 results since March while chief executive Debbie White secured backing for its £834m borrowing limit, the markets initially reacted to the news of £244m of losses and net debt at over £500m with a share price nosedive of 17%.

Interserve CEO Debbie White was clear that much of the company’s pain has been self-inflicted  – basically it has bid too low for too long on jobs that pose too much risk and is suffering the consequences. Sound familiar?

To put that into perspective, in 2016 Interserve netted losses of £94m and net debt was £274m, so when CEO White says “2017 was an extremely challenging year”, few would argue.

The extent of the problems is deep and wide, ranging from another writedown of £35m in its ill-fated energy-from-waste business, to its loss-making construction business (£19.4m) and poor performance from its support services division. Of course, difficult market conditions have played their part – the latest ONS figures show that construction activity has declined so far it is starting to act as a drag on the rest of the UK economy. But White was clear that much of the pain has been self-inflicted, stating that the UK construction business has suffered historically from “poor decision making in project targeting and inadequate project control” – basically it has bid too low for too long on jobs that pose too much risk and is suffering the consequences.

Sound familiar?