Troubled infra giant collapse puts jobs and pensions at risk
Britain’s second largest construction firm, Carillion, has collaposed with debts of about £1.5bn. Crisis-hit giant has filed for liquidation, owing up to 30,000 businesses around £1bn in unpaid costs, and putting thousands of jobs and pensions at risk.
Carillion employs 20,000 people in the UK and is a major supplier to the Government, building infrastructure including the HS2 project and maintaining schools and prisons.
Cabinet office minister David Lidington warned last night that Carillion’s contracts outside the public sector will only have 48 hours of government support. After that, they could be terminated unless the firm’s private sector clients agree to keep paying for the services, and cover any additional costs run up by the liquidator.
Lidington also said there would be government support for public sector contracts.
In a related news, leading banks including Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group may face the prospect of hundreds of millions of pounds in outstanding loans going unpaid from Carillion’s collapse.
Along with 10 other banks, they arranged a £790m revolving credit facility for Carillion in 2015, which made up the bulk of £835m worth of syndicated bank loans owed by Carillion that mature in 2020.
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