New Zealand Listener – March 02, 2018

MARCH 10 2018 LISTENER 25

million of revenue with that amount of risk.

There’s plenty of other construction work

that makes sense with bigger margins.”

Taylor made it his first task when he began

as CEO to launch a broader review of B+I

contracts. This led the company to crystallise

its latest losses.

He hasn’t completed a wider assessment

of the company and says he will announce

details of “quite an exciting opportunity”

when the review is complete in June. But on

a recent analyst call, he indicated non-core

assets could be sold.

“The main question for me is the balance

sheet. That’s the discipline I’m going

through,” he says.

Morningstar identified the Formica busi-

ness, bought with great fanfare in 2007,

as a sale candidate because it fell into the

category of “earning low returns with no

synergies across the rest of the business”.

Taylor told the analyst call he is upbeat

about the rest of the company and “wouldn’t

be here” if he didn’t believe in its potential. l

GETTY IMAGES

“We’ve been in the

market for more than

40 years and it’s not

our first rodeo; we have

learnt to be nimble.”

Fletcher projects past and

present: 1. Chateau Tongariro.

2. Wellington Railway Station.


3. The Sky Tower. 4. The Justice
   Precinct in Christchurch. 5. The
   Waterview Tunnel. 6. Pedestrians
   pour into the 2.4km tunnel on its
   open day last June.

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