Last week, The Independent on Sunday revealed that annual profits at Tube Lines had surged by 37 per cent to £57m, even though the Northern Line is the worst performer on the London Underground. It's got to add value."The 2012 London Olympics have also caught his eye, and not just because he's prone to the odd spot of French-baiting - "It's fantastic news," he quips, "especially looking at the countries we had to beat to get there." The building or upkeep of transport links, either through Amey or Tube Lines, is the main area of interest. No official moves have been made but Ewell says he's already talking to "all kinds of people about it".Amey is also bidding to maintain Birmingham's roads - a contract worth around £2bn - and is pursuing various contracts with local authorities.Yet not everything is rosy. For a start, while Amey may be on a stronger footing, the reputation of PPPs remains as shaky as ever. We know our markets and the organisations that would be supportive to our strategy. "If I can find an opportunity that's right for the company, that makes sense, then we will go for it But it's early days yet.
And last Christmas, in a reversal of fortune as Jarvis became the latest PPP darling to hit the skids, Amey bought out its stake in Tube Lines for £147m, making it the majority shareholder.Ewell is now on the lookout for more deals. But he cannot take the sole credit for saving the company; ultimately, it was the Spaniards, in the guise of construction giant Ferrovial, who came to the rescue, snapping up Amey for £81m in April 2003.Ewell says the company is now in good shape once again, with 2004 pre-tax profits coming in at £21m on revenues just shy of £1bn. At that stage, it owned a third, beside Jarvis and the US giant Bechtel.Ewell set about slashing costs, stripping out around £20m from Amey's overheads. The good news is that Amey never had any question about the quality of its operations: the business generated good cashflows from good operations.
It was draining the company of cash and it got into a great deal of difficulty."In particular, Amey was struggling to find the cashto participate in Tube Lines, the consortium assigned the upkeep and refurbishment of London Underground's Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines. But it had very much unbalanced itself in the charge towards structured finance deals. Executives had deserted ship, its accounting practices had been called into question, the dividend was scrapped and it was faced with debts of £190m.Ewell had joined in 2001, as director of operations, but just two years later he replaced the chief executive, Brian Staples "It's been interesting," he notes wryly "Up until 2001, Amey had been a real tiger company. It completely transformed itself to move into the public support services arena, and I can't think of another company that's done that."But it got to a point when it became very evident the company had overstretched itself. In 2003, the company's market value had plummeted as it struggled for survival.
