Jarvis plc announces pre-tax loss of £58m

Jarvis is still in the red with the group’s latest annual results, covering the 12 months to 31 March 2006, showing a pre-tax loss of £58m.

Twelve months ago, it was highly doubtful that Jarvis would ever issue another set of financial figures. But remarkably, it has survived a highly turbulent 12-month period.

The biggest issues have been resolved and the boat has been kept afloat thanks to a huge debt-for-equity swop and the sale of most of Jarvis’s valuables. Net debt currently stands at a manageable figure of £22m (2005 figure: £304m).

Jarvis’s net loss this time round might be huge, at £58m, but it is still nowhere near the staggering loss of £391m in the previous year.

But one of the group’s operating divisions is making money at last.

Rail & Plant showed an operating profit of £27m (2005 loss: £21m) but there was gloom elsewhere as the roads division made an operating loss of £7m (2005 loss: £99m) and accommodation services lost £5m (2005 loss: 154m).

Steven Morris, chairman, backed up the figures with what must be the under-statement of the year, saying: “The group is in a better position at the year-end than it was at its beginning.”