Troubled civil engineering group Grontmij expects to have significantly shrunk its debts by the end of 2013, news agency AFN reports.

The company reported net loss in the second quarter of €1.7m, an improvement of 85.6% on the year-earlier period.

Operating profit increased to €5.1m, mainly because the company booked better results in Denmark, Sweden and the UK.

Net debt at the end of the second quarter is €149.2m, against €l48.9m in the year-earlier period.

CEO Michiel Jaski told AFN he expects debts to reduce by around €64m this year, mainly through the sale of the company’s sale of its French monitoring and test activities.

The total value of that sale is €71m, of which €4m is debt.

Grontmij has been in trouble since 2011 when it booked disappointing earnings and it became clear the company could not carry its debt.

In the last two months of 2011 and the first of 2012, seven senior staff left the company, including four executives.