Financial Aspects of Large Construction Companies

Later chapters in this book examine in detail the behaviour and strategies of those companies which participated in the research project. In order to place these firms in perspective it is necessary first to consider the situation of large construction companies in general. Data on seventy of the top eighty companies by turnover have been analysed to obtain information on changes in their turnover, profits, assets, gearing and other financial indicators over the period from 1987 — a year at the earlier stages of the boom — to 1993 when the signs of recovery were first becoming evident. Eighty of the top companies are shown in Table 2.1. They are not necessarily all the top eighty companies because for some there are inadequate data, for example due to being subsidiaries of foreign companies. In the analysis in this chapter only 70 of these have generally been included because for others (mainly smaller companies) 1993 data were not available.