New Zealand’s Fletcher Building posts $129 million annual loss as coronavirus bites

(Reuters) – New Zealand’s Fletcher Building Ltd reported an annual loss on Wednesday, hurt by project delays, higher cost provisions and one-time restructuring expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country’s largest construction firm said net loss after tax for the year stood at NZ$196 million ($129.34 million), compared with a profit of NZ$164 million a year earlier.

Last week, Fletcher warned that its supply chains would remain under pressure in the year ahead as lockdowns to curb the pandemic disrupts industrial activity and delay projects.

Fletcher said it has taken some “difficult” decisions to reduce costs in anticipation of lower market activity ahead, which it expects will deliver a permanent reduction of about NZ$300 million in fiscal 2021 in cost base.

The company said in May it will cut about 1,000 jobs in New Zealand and an additional 500 in Australia to reduce costs.

(Reporting by A K Pranav in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)