Carillion is one of the day’s biggest fallers following another profit warning. Jill Treanor writes:

Carillion, one of the construction companies working on the HS2 London to Birmingham rail line, is racing to refinance its business after issuing its third profit warning in five months and suffering a collapse in share price.

Shares in the company, which is at the heart of several major building projects in the UK, were suspended eight times on Friday after the shock update to the City that it would breach the terms on its existing lending at the end of the year.

The shares crashed 60% when the stock market opened on Friday – to their lowest ever levels – and were still down nearly 40% near the end of the day’s trading. At this price, about 25p, the shares are barely a tenth of the 240p level seen at the start of 2017 and values the company at just £120m.

Carillion has debts of £1.6bn and analysts expect the company – known for its work on expanding the main stand at Liverpool’s Anfield football ground and its ongoing development of Battersea power station – to have to ask its lenders to swap their debt for shares.

The company employs 30,000, two-thirds of them in the UK, and has contracts with the Highways Agency, Network Rail and the Ministry of Defence. It is building hospitals including Merseyside’s Royal Liverpool and also has a support services operation which has maintenance contracts for buildings.

The government, one of its major customers, said it was being kept informed.