Industrial group Cape has crashed by more than a third after issuing a profits warning relating to a contract in Algeria.
The company said it would take a £14m hit on the liquefied natural gas development, which would knock back its full year profits by the same amount. Last year the company made profits of £69.4m.
It had already experienced delays on the project but a review in mid-April showed "no material concerns... highlighted by the project team."
But acting chief executive Brendan Connolly decided, given the size of the project, to conduct an audit in mid-May which uncovered further costs.
Perhaps not surprisingly a new project team has now been put in place, with additional skilled workers employed on the site.
The news has sent Cape's shared tumbling 117.2p to 206.3p, down 36%. Andy Hanson, an analyst at Northland Capital Partners, said:
With the company having identified a loss making contract last year, today's announcement raises further questions about operational control issues on specific contracts. Until we get greater clarity on this we move our recommendation to sell.
