Business Report writes that listed construction and engineering group Aveng reduced its permanent staff complement by about 2,000 people in the year to June.  

This was to match its overhead cost structure with the continued weak construction market conditions.  The company incurred R189 million in once-off restructuring costs during the year, which chief executive Kobus Verster said were people related and mainly for the payment of packages and retrenchments.  He indicated that the retrenchments occurred across all divisions.  Aveng in 2014 embarked on a three-pronged process.  The first phase involved recovery and stabilisation, which was now largely complete.  The second phase from this year until 2019 involves improving and positioning the group for profitability, with the third phase from 2019 onwards to focus on realising growth and sustaining profitability.

• Read this report by Roy Cokayne in full at Business Report

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