Carillion profits fall as it scales back

It also hit revenue, alongside the impact of Carillion's shrinking of its UK construction business.

Revenue in 2013 was down 7% to £4.1 billion as pre-tax profits slumped 33% to £110.6 million, largely due to the £42.9m impact of restructuring its energy services arm to cope with the lower workloads. However, its order book is still worth £18 billion and upcoming orders are worth £4.9bn.

At the same time Carillion has unveiled £370m of orders for work on a mine project in Canada, looking after Royal Bank of Scotland's offices and branches and support services work for communications group Arquiva.

In the Middle East it has won £150m of work to build a 1 million sq ft entertainment and retail development in the Jumeirah area of Dubai.

The company, which also works on major road and rail projects, has its headquarters in Wolverhampton where it employs around 750 of its 40,000-strong workforce.

Chairman Philip Rogerson said today: "In 2013, Carillion has continued to respond decisively to challenging market conditions, including completing the rescaling of its UK construction activities and the restructuring of its energy services business, which are now aligned in size to their respective markets, while continuing to develop and strengthen its positions in new and existing markets that offer good opportunities for growth.

"Overall, we expect market conditions to remain challenging in 2014, but with a strong order book, good revenue visibility and substantial pipeline of contract opportunities the group is now well positioned for the future."