Bilfinger cuts 1,500 jobs and lowers forecast

Munich. The Mannheim-based industrial service provider Bilfinger is giving up hope of catching up in the second half of the year and is therefore cutting 1,500 jobs worldwide. Bilfinger admitted on Wednesday evening that developments in the summer fell well short of the original assumptions because the Iran war was lasting longer than expected.

The share reacts promptly to the significantly lower profit expectations for the current year: The Bilfinger share, which is listed in the MDax small cap index, collapsed on Thursday by up to 26.4 percent to 55.60 euros, its lowest level in almost a year and a half. The stock has more than halved since February.

The war had slowed Bilfinger down this year, but CEO Thomas Schulz had hoped to revive business, for example by rebuilding the infrastructure in the Middle East.

However, customers also held back in the third quarter - both when it came to new orders and when retrieving services from existing framework agreements. This puts pressure on returns because employees are underutilized.