Carillion's shares fall to five-year low

Shares in Carillion fell to a five-year low today as the embattled contractor prepares to reveal its annual results next month.

The firm’s stock was trading at just over 50p, with the market awaiting its results and an update on developments to find a new chief executive in the wake of Richard Howson’s resignation in July, following a profits warning. A year ago Carillion’s shares were trading at 246p, while at their peak in March 2014, they were 376p.

Meanwhile, Howson (pictured) has become the group’s chief operating officer for the second time. As well as overseeing the firm’s operations, he will be responsible for its health and safety activity and sustainability programmes.

In July Carillion announced Howson’s resignation from the chief executive role after it revealed it would be taking an £845m hit on a number of contracts and issued a profits warning, and said he would be leaving the firm within a year. He was replaced by non-executive board member Keith Cochrane, a former boss of the Weir Group, who planned to stay in the post until a permanent replacement could be recruited.

A spokesperson for Carillion said that Howson would still be leaving the firm as per its July announcement. He added that the firm had not confirmed a date for publication of its 2016/17 results.

The group’s share price collapsed following the July profits warning from 117p to 57p, in less than a week.

After subsequently revealing a number of contract win Carillion’s shares showed some signs of a recovery, but it has been on the end of damning assessments from City analysts, including the length of time it would take to replace Howson, and having bumped along between 56p and 59p for the past month, its shares have slid again.