Piling and rail infrastructure specialist Van Elle has been forced to write off close to £1 million of bad debt due to the collapse of Carillion.

In its preliminary results for the year ended 30 April 2018, the geotechnical contractor revealed it booked a bad debt write-off of £956,000 following Carillion's liquidation in January.

Van Elle said despite a good overall performance in the first half of the year, the second half was "significantly impacted by a number of factors" including the liquidation of Carillion, disruption caused by the severe weather between January and March and the delay of a small number of important contracts in Q4.

-- Advertisement --

With underlying operating profit down 4% to £11.1m (2017L £11.6m), Group revenue increased by 10.4% to £103.9m (2017: £94.1m) driven by activity in new housing and infrastructure sectors.

Van Elle Chair, Adrian Barden, said: "Following the challenging conditions experienced at the start of 2018, recovery has been slow in a number of our end markets which has resulted in a relatively quiet first quarter for the Group as a whole.

"However, we are seeing an increase in opportunities across each of our divisions, particularly in the housebuilding and infrastructure markets. We continue to monitor conditions in our core markets actively and whilst mindful of the current conditions, we are cautiously optimistic about the Group's prospects, being well positioned to deliver further value to shareholders in the medium term."

(LM/MH)