Carillion was the UK's second-largest builder — then it collapsed with £7B in debt

Carillion was created in 1999 from a demerger of Tarmac and grew through acquisitions to become the UK's second-largest construction company, with 43,000 employees and £5.2 billion in annual revenue. It was a key government contractor building hospitals, schools, roads, and prisons, and managing facilities for the Ministry of Defence. The company was a pillar of UK infrastructure.

Behind the facade, Carillion was collapsing. By July 2017, it had issued multiple profit warnings and taken an £845 million impairment charge. Losses for the first half of 2017 totalled £1.15 billion. A parliamentary inquiry later found that the company had used 'aggressive accounting' to hide mounting problems and had increased its dividend every year while the pension deficit grew to £2.6 billion.

On 15 January 2018, Carillion went into compulsory liquidation with liabilities of £6.9 billion and only £29 million in cash. Up to 30,000 small businesses were owed money. Over 3,000 employees were made redundant. The UK government had awarded Carillion over £2 billion in contracts after it had already issued profit warnings. The collapse was described by a parliamentary inquiry as 'a story of recklessness, hubris and greed.'