Carillion on Verge of Collapse Seeks Last-Minute Talks, Sky Says

(Bloomberg) -- Carillion Plc is planning last-minute talks with the U.K. government to avoid going into administration as early as Monday, Sky News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

The debt-ridden builder has come up with a plan that would allow it to borrow new funding from existing lenders if the government agrees to guarantee payments at certain stages of public-sector contracts, with emergency talks with officials scheduled for Sunday, Sky said. A Carillion spokesman declined to comment on the report, while a government spokesperson reiterated Saturday that officials are “carefully monitoring the situation” and working to ensure that contingency plans are robust.

A group of Carillion’s lenders are pushing for taxpayer help to save the debt-ridden builder after saying a business plan submitted Wednesday was “too optimistic,” the Financial Times reported earlier, citing people with knowledge of the negotiations. Carillion on Friday denied that the proposal had been rejected. The builder, whose shares have plummeted after it issued three profit warnings in six months last year, employs about 43,000 people globally and gets three-quarters of its revenue from the U.K.

U.K. ministers decided against providing a direct financial bailout to Carillion and were likely to be “lukewarm” about the latest rescue effort, Sky reported citing unidentified government sources. Officials and the company’s lenders are said to have held emergency talks on Friday night, according to the broadcaster.

Carillion shares fell 37 percent in the past two days, after rising at the start of the week on optimism about its business plan. The fate of the builder is sensitive for the government because Carillion is a supplier to several departments, with projects that involve building roads, libraries and hospitals, as well as the HS2 high-speed rail link.

--With assistance from Alex Morales

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Sidders in London at jsidders@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Namitha Jagadeesh, Ville Heiskanen

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.