Interserve has experienced 'mixed trading' in its UK construction business during the first four months of 2017.

In a trading update, the company said the businesses performance is still in line with overall expectations, while progress has been made on contracts within its exited Energy from Waste (EfW) business.

Last year, Interserve announced it was pulling out of the EfW sector after taking a £70 million hit to its Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre project.

However, in the first four months of this year, the company's UK Support Services has won a new five-year facilities management contract with Network Rail worth £65m and a one-year contract extension to provide total facilities management services to the Ministry of Justice worth £16m.

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In addition, the company has UK construction work worth (in aggregate) £77m to design and build four schools, while its RMDK division has orders on major projects including the Mersey Gateway and the A14 upgrade scheme in the UK, together with ongoing work on a number of projects in Bahrain for the NASS group. Interserve said it anticipates an 'improving performance' in the second half of the year as older, less favourable contracts are completed.

On an international scale, the company has won contracts at the Liwa Plastics scheme in Oman worth £72m and, in Qatar, for Siemens to build substations worth £50m. Other schemes include; a new FM contract for government buildings in the UAE worth £17m and, in Qatar, a shutdown contract on an industrial production facility for £39m.

Interserve said: "There has, as yet, been little noticeable slowdown in our volume of work from UK Government, although workflow may be impacted by the General Election.

"Our expectations for the overall performance and cash delivery of the Group are consequently unchanged."

(LM)