So unpopular is the construction sector that it’s no wonder that companies operating in it have begun to describe themselves in other, more circumspect ways, such as “infrastructure solutions provider”.
Whatever the descriptor, though, there’s no getting away from the root problems plaguing the big players: painfully high operating costs, runaway debts, legacy loss-making contracts and the kind of margins that make the move from black to red ink on the balance sheet easy.
And that’s before any of the wider worries, of Brexit, a tendency to be exposed to the housing market and a historically high reliance on winning contracts from the government, clearly at risk in any time of austerity. Oh, and Carillion, whose demise a year ago has sent valuations across the