Construction firm Kier has issued a shock profit warning, with chiefs revealing that profits are expected to be £25 million lower than expected.

The company said the highways, utilities, housing maintenance and buildings divisions will be particularly affected and revenues will be flat at around £2.5 billion.

Shares in the business plunged more than 40 per cent in early trading Monday to 163.2p - a new all-time low for the firm.

New chief executive Andrew Davies, who is carrying out a review into the business, also revealed that the costs for its "future-proofing" project will more than double - costing £29m compared with £14m originally earmarked.

READ MORE: New Kier boss begins with business review

Executives at Kier, which is a major contractor for the HS2 railway project, said the extra costs are due to an "acceleration of the programme".

Mr Davies joined Kier in March and set to work drawing up plans for a major turnaround, after attempts by previous management to raise £250m from shareholders to cut debt and strengthen the balance sheet failed.

The review is expected to be completed by the end of July and had originally said the net savings from the plans would be around £20 million by 2020.

Chemicals giant Ineos will splash out $2 billion building its first manufacturing plants in Saudi Arabia.

Founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe said: "The timing is right for us to enter this significant agreement in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco and Total. We are bringing advanced downstream technology which will add value and create further jobs in The Kingdom."

The deal sees Ineos team up with the country's state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and French business Total to build the $5 billion petrochemical complex.

Ineos will build three "world-scale" plants to produce carbon fibre, engineering polymers and synthetic lubricants for car, construction and electronics industries.

Trials of a new pancreatic cancer drug Lynparza have seen results that are "statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful", pharmaceutical AstraZeneca has said.

Jose Baselga, executive vice president, Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said: "From as early as six months after initiation, more than twice as many patients taking Lynparza lived without progression of their disease compared to those on placebo and we are now working with regulatory authorities to bring Lynparza to patients as quickly as possible."