This year’s interim results season has been an opportunity to see just how much the pandemic has eaten into bottom lines and what it has done to balance sheets. So when the two star performers of the industry have been hobbled by covid, then worries, naturally, grow for others. 

Morgan Sindall, the undisputed City darling of contracting in recent times, turned in its worst set of results for five years while Balfour Beatty, which was a mess when chief executive Leo Quinn walked through the door more than five years ago, slipped to a pre-tax loss for the first time since its 2016 half-year results.

At least Morgan Sindall stayed in the black and chief executive John Morgan is quick to point out the firm’s interims are not a bad set of figures considering the havoc the virus has wrought on the industry. The firm is also paying back the £9m it received in furlough money from the government in the second half and, once it has done so, expects to make a £50m to £60m full-year profit in 2020.

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