LONDON: British construction and property consultancy Cyril Sweett warned on its full-year results as the Arab Spring led to a number of projects being scrapped, and the company said it was cutting costs at its UK and Middle East operations. The Arab Spring is a reference to the ongoing conflict in countries such as Syria and Libya in the Middle East where activists are agitating for political freedom. "Trading conditions have been tough in the year to date ... As a result, we now anticipate lower levels of client investment going forward than we had previously expected," the company said in a statement. Analysts on average are expecting a full-year pretax profit of 3.8 million pounds, on revenue of 74.7 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Cyril Sweett's operating margins for the first half of the financial year were hurt by stiff competition in the UK. The company's shares, which have lost more than a quarter of their value over the past three months, were indicated down about 18 percent at 0640 GMT on Friday on the London Stock Exchange. They closed at 34 pence on Thursday.
