Sisk to sue over losses in Poland

Construction group Sisk is taking both legal and arbitration proceedings in a bid to recover the losses on Polish road building projects over the last two years.

Delays and intractable difficulties with Poland’s roads authority forced SRB, a joint venture involving Sisk and fellow Irish company Roadbridge, to pull out of two motorway projects before the were completed last autumn.

The company completed a third project, but at considerable extra cost, which Sisk said yesterday was incurred in compensating for difficulties created by poor management on the part of the Polish authority.

Chief executive Liam Nagle confirmed yesterday that SRB is taking a legal action against the Polish state for €250 million.

At the same time, it also taking arbitration proceedings under the Bilateral Investment Treaty framework. Its agreement with the Polish authorities provides for this method of dispute resolution.

Figures published by Sisk’s parent, Sicon Ltd, yesterday show it lost €98 million in Poland. The group booked over €83 million of that shortfall in 2011.

The group also had to write off €49.1 million in goodwill to account for the demerger of its healthcare business to a new entity. The costs of the Polish projects and the writedown left it with a total pretax loss of €153.6 million in 2011.

Mr Nagle, said Sisk returned to profitability last year, when it generated a surplus of between €10 million and €12 million.

“We took the Polish loss on the nose,” he said.