AECOM has recorded a charge related to the shut down of its work as program manager of Libya’s estimated $50-billion upgrade of housing and other infrastructure.

The company announced March 1 an expected 8-cent-per-share charge in its second quarter.

AECOM has evacuated expatriate managers and staff.

Michael S. Burke, the company’s chief financial officer and senior vice president, said the charge was related to “demobilization, shutdown and operating impacts.” But he said that the company year-end projection of $2.25 to $2.35 earnings-per-share is unchanged, “due to continued strength in the remainder of our business.”

Based in Los Angeles, AECOM has operations in over 100 countries.

Avram Fisher, analyst with BMO Capital Markets Corp., New York City, said in a report issued March 2nd that AECOM had already completed a two-year, $201-million contract under the program and was awaiting renewal of a $125-million option year.

According to BMO Capital Markets, “The bulk of the charge, which we estimate as $14 million pre-tax, is associated with securing the company’s roughly 400 employees” in Libya.

According to an AECOM company executive who did not wish to be identified, AECOM evacuated about 147 expats as of Feb. 25, with about 75 Libyan employees remaining in the country.

The modernization had been championed by Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of embattled Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Saif is believed to be an architect and hold an engineering science degree.