Metronet’s underperformance continues to dog WS Atkins. This is the first time that Metronet, the joint venture which was originally touted as a great money spinner but now faces cost overruns of £750 million, has made a loss.
Atkin’s 20 per cent of Metronet delivered a first-half loss of £400,000 compared with a £1 million last time. Profit in the previous full financial year was £5 million and £10 million a year earlier.
This week Metronet was blamed for widespread chaos on the London Tube and last week was heavily criticised by City of London mayor Ken Livingstone following a damning report by regulators that it had underperformed in each of the past three years.
The engineer’s shares were down 5 per cent today to 856p, despite a 10 per cent rise in overal profits and a 33 per cent rise in the dividend.