To be fair, it’s not just Aggregate Industries suffering. An indication of the headwinds now facing the construction industry can be found in comments accompanying a £264m emergency rights issue from Kier Group on Friday. The boss of Kier Group commented:
There has been a recent change in sentiment from the credit markets towards the UK construction sector, with various lenders indicating that they will be reducing their exposure to the sector. This has led to lower confidence among other stakeholders and an increased focus on balance sheet strength.
Kier Group has sales £4.2bn, employs more than 20,000, and saw its shares fall 22% on the news.
