Balfour Beatty has warned of a £35 million profits shortfall at its UK engineering services division.
Carillion and Balfour Beatty have resumed merger talks after plans for a £3.2billion tie up were dropped in acrimony at the start of the month.
The two construction giants, both partners in the consortium building the Aberdeen bypass, fell out after Balfour blamed Carillion for the “wholly unexpected decision” to insist that the sale of its US arm be included in the deal. It is understood that Carillion has made a tweak to the terms of its offer in an attempt to win Balfour’s backing.
Balfour Beatty will be quizzed on its strategy on Wednesday as some analysts suggested it could reveal a potential buyer for US business Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Balfour said the sale of its US business, which it bought for £380million in 2009, was already well advanced and walked away from the talks.
Time is running out for Carillion as Takeover rules dictate that it must “put up or shut up” on its offer for its larger rival by August 21.
Last month the Connect Roads consortium, which also includes Galliford Try (Morrison Construction), were awarded the contract to build the bypass.
