Lendlease profit slips as income stays flat

Turnover at Lendlease’s European construction business stayed flat last year with the firm saying the impact of covid continued to be a drag on the firm’s numbers.

Income in the year to June remained at £554m but pre-tax profit slipped 7% to £18.8m. In the accounts, the firm said the fallout from the pandemic “meant activity has been slower” in the past couple of years but it added: “We have noticed a significant increase in high quality opportunities coming to the market.”

The overwhelming majority of the firm’s revenue comes from the UK, where it is carrying out work on 8 Bishopsgate in the City of London, the Google headquarters in King’s Cross and the redevelopment of the grade I-listed Manchester Town Hall.

It has won a string of high-profile deals in recent months including a £430m office scheme at 120 Fleet Street in the City of London and a £200m job to turn the former London flagship of collapsed retailer Debenhams on Oxford Street into a new retail and office complex.

Earlier this year, it won the £400m scheme to turn the former ITV studios at 72 Upper Ground on London’s South Bank into an office complex. But this job faces months of sitting on the sidelines after it was called in by then secretary of state Greg Clark in September.

Lendlease said the average number of employees during the year fell 9% to 1,100 people. It had cash in bank of £72m, down from £78m last time.