From the AFR:
Lend Lease’s share price has slumped 8 per cent after it announced it was preparing to cut staff as part of a restructure of its Australian construction and infrastructure businesses.
…Lend Lease released a market earnings update on Monday morning.
It said the profit composition mix had changed, with the Asian Development, Australian Infrastructure Development and Australian Property businesses performing better than the prior year.
“However, the underlying construction markets in Australia and EMEA have softened in the second half of FY13, contributing to reduced earnings from the construction businesses in those regions.”
…Property analyst at Nomura Simon Thackray said at first glance the market update was more significant than the group restructure.
Mr Thackray said the market update was “probably going to be interpreted as an underlying earnings downgrade,” reflecting poor conditions in construction.
I’ve been waiting for more on this story before posting this morning. I don’t know why Lend Lease has chosen to drip the bad news, which is a bad idea, but it does appear that is another mining services and property construction profit downgrade in the making. Shares are down 8%.
