Provisions send Prater tumbling into red

Roofing and facade firm Prater says it has recovered £9.5m in insurance claims after being asked to carry out repair work on a “large façade contract”, the firm’s latest accounts reveal.

The firm did not name the job but in 2021 Building revealed that a flagship building built by Mace for broadcaster Sky in west London was having to be repaired because of a leaking roof.

Prater was the original roofing contractor on the scheme but the flat roof of the 41,000 sq m building ended up being plagued by a series of leaks.

Prater also revealed that contract provisions at the end of 2022 stood at £16.9m which it said were for “onerous contracts expected to be settled over the next two years”.

In the latest accounts, signed off five days before Christmas, the firm revealed it racked up a loss of £28m in the year to December 2022 which it said also included “significant cost increases on one large residential project”.

Prater did not name the job but last summer it left the Lewisham Gateway scheme, a £200m deal being carried out by Balfour Beatty to build 600 flats in south-east London.

Turnover in 2022 was down a third to £31.5m with the firm sinking £28m into the red from a £2m pre-tax profit in 2021.

Prater was merged into sister firm Lindner Prater, which has been owned by German firm Lindner since it bought Prater in 2011, nearly three years ago with turnover at Linder Prater up three-quarters to £62m in the year to December 2022.

But the firm stayed in the red, marginally narrowing pre-tax losses from nearly £9m to £8.8m. It said operating profit before exceptional items was £1.3m. Linder Prater said the exceptional item of £10m was for “irrecoverable intra group debt”.

In the accounts, also signed off five days before Christmas, the firm said its order book for 2023 and beyond was £114m.