Revenue at Lend Lease's European arm drops 40%

Revenue at Lend Lease’s European arm fell by 40.4% during the year June 2010-11, newly published results show.  

Revenue dropped by £1bn to £1.49bn for the year to June 2011 at the Australian developer and contractor’s European arm, which is dominated by the UK business.

Its European construction division also saw a 40.5% fall in revenues to £1.29bn, and a 55.8% drop in profit after tax, from A$25.8 million to A$11.4 million.

Revenue secured from new work was up by 26%, however, to A$1,435.5. The work won includes the Scottish National Arena in Glasgow, Bulford Housing for the Ministry of Defence and Manchester Creative & Media Academy. The company said the fall in profit after tax reflected challenging trading conditions across both the UK and Continental Europe.

The news comes in the year Lend Lease took the decision to drop the Bovis brand, one of the best known in UK construction, from its UK construction subsidiary.

Work on the Athletes’ Village for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the new BBC broadcasting centre, and projects for the Ministry of Defence were listed among Lend Lease’s key trading events over the financial year.  

Overall in Europe, the company’s profit after tax increased by A$18.8 million to A$137.4 million, reflecting the sale of the group’s Infrastructure arm to the Lend Lease PFI/PPP Infrastructure Fund LP (the UKIF).

The UKIF was launched with £220m in committed capital available to invest in social infrastructure assets over the next five years. Among the group’s future projects is a £1.5bn regeneration of Elephant and Castle, which will go ahead under a Conditional Regeneration Agreement with the London Borough of Southwark.

The group’s investment management included the extension of the Lend Lease Retail Partnership (LLRP) for a further seven year period until November 2017. LLRP owns 25% of the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, and 100% of Touchwood shopping centre in Solihull, Birmingham.