Multiplex Europe saw its revenue fall 31% in 2020 to £606.3m (2019: £881.2m) and the business sunk to a pre-tax loss of £138.5m (2019: £7.9m profit).
Earnings before income, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) showed a loss of £148m (2019: £5m Ebitda loss).
“Prior to the direct impact of Covid-19, we generated £1m of Ebitda,” directors Callum Tuckett and Derek Gorgi wrote in their report in the 2020 accounts, filed this week. “Although our Covid-19 adjusted Ebitda was £6m greater than 2019, it was impacted by lower turnover due to delays in commencement of new work and productivity reducing on projects resulting in less work performed in the year.
“The £149m of directly attributable Covid-19 charges included £82m of higher project costs and £67m of impairments resulting from Covid-19. Although the impact of Covid-19 was material to the business, the group has not required any external funding to date and has managed liquidity requirements of the pandemic through its internal resilience measures. We ended the year with £29m of cash on our balance sheet; after considering the cash costs incurred due to Covid-19, this is a strong result.”
Multiplex Europe Ltd includes Multiplex Plant & Equipment Europe, Multiplex CDM Service Europe and Multiplex Construction Europe.
Revenue at Multiplex Construction Europe fell to £599.4m in 2020 (2019: £872.2m) and pre-tax loss widened to £158.6m (2019: £14.1m loss).
During the first quarter of 2021 Multiplex has secured an additional £650m of new work, including the £400m redevelopment of the former US embassy in Mayfair and a new 35-storey office tower at 1 Leadenhall in the City of London.
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