COSTLY CLOSURE
Murray & Roberts warns of earnings fall on Middle East business exit
The magnitude of the expected headline earnings per share loss disappoints analysts
Murray & Roberts will exit its Middle East operations after failing to sell them during its disposal of the infrastructure and building business. But the shutdown of those operations is expected to affect the construction firm’s full-year results negatively. The company sold the infrastructure and building business to a black-owned consortium led by the Southern Palace Group for R314m in 2016. The Middle East operations were not included as the buyer was not interested in them. In a trading statement released on Monday, Murray & Roberts said the board had decided that the most prudent action would be to walk away from the business in the Middle East once all construction activity had been completed at the end of the 2017 financial year. "Closure of this business is very costly mainly due to increased cost associated with the remaining construction work on the last four projects, as well as an unfavourable arbitration ruling on a subcontractor claim on a project which was completed i...
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