The company, which has suffered over the past year after issuing a string of profit warnings, said it had been appointed as the sole contractor to a new UK-wide civil engineering and infrastructure framework for public works.

The four-year framework, which is operated by public-sector owned Scape Group, is valued up to 1.5 billion pounds and individual projects are expected to valued up to 40 million.

($1 = 0.6602 pounds)

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang; Editing by Karolin Schaps)