The chairman of UK developer Laing O’Rourke has cited a $4bn decline in the firm’s Middle Eastern projects pipeline as being a major factor in turnover sliding by 15 percent throughout the year.
Turnover in the Middle East slipped from $1.4bn to $652m during the course of the 2009-2010 year.
The UK’s third largest contractor also cut 3,500 jobs from its Europe, Middle East and Asia operations, and incurred $25.7m in redundancy charges as a result.
“As a direct employer, the year proved our most challenging ever, with a significant number of people leaving the Group as we took decisive action to align business costs with current and anticipated workload,” said Ray O’Rourke, chairman and chief executive of Laing O’Rourke.
“The majority of this decline was directly attributable to the removal of workload associated with the Aldar joint venture in Abu Dhabi, and the steep decline in the Dubai market, where many projects were operationally paused.”
The news again brought renewed speculation from the British construction press that Laing O’Rourke had dissolved its relationship with Abu Dhabi developer Aldar and ceased its Middle East operations.
In June, the Building.co.uk trade website reported that the firm was shutting its Middle Eastern division, although this was immediately denied.
“Laing O’Rourke is not closing its Middle East operations,” a spokesperson from the contractor said in a statement, while adding that it would not be issuing “any further comment on the original media speculation.”
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