Bouygues closes down 30m-euro construction site due to crisis

Bouygues Romania, the domestic unit of the world’s second biggest builder, has been seriously hurt by the housing crisis, being forced to halt works at one of the construction sites it opened in February. The housing project, worth 30m euros, belonged to Copper Beech real estate developer, which in early 2008 announced it would build 17,000 housing units in Bucharest and its neighbourhoods, in the wake of 2.5bn-euro investments. Subsequently, as the mortgage loan market froze, Copper Beech decided to halt 16 of the 17 announced projects and lay off 20% of employees. “We ought to have wondered about the crisis as early as this summer, when bad news started flowing from everywhere and particularly from abroad. We felt the impact when several construction sites on the market started closing down, and Copper Beach told us they were likely to stop works at Atrium housing project,” Dragos Victor Stefanescu, general manager of Bouygues Romania, told ZF. The impact would have been bigger had the company signed a second contract. The company will reach turnover worth less than 60m euros this year, compared with early-2008 projections for around 65m euros. As a matter of fact, the 2009 budget will be below the 2008 one, but the company has not set any clear targets due to market uncertainties.