Strong growth at Morgan Sindall’s fit-out division helped the contractor hike pre-tax profit 50% in the first half of the year to £23m.
The fit-out business is expected to drive growth for the rest of the year on the back of a record order book of £568m, up by over half on a year ago.
Chief Executive, John Morgan (pictured) said operating margins were recovering at both fitout, now 4.3%, and the construction and infrastructure divisions, now up to 1.1%.
This helped to lift group pre-tax profits in the first six month of the year from £15m a year ago. Revenue rose 14% to £1.3bn.
| Morgan Sindall trading in first six months | ||||||
| Revenue | %rise | Op. profit | %rise | %margin | rise | |
| Construction & Infrastructure | £694m | 13% | £7.6m | 138% | 1.1% | 60bps |
| Fit-out | £339m | 15% | £14.6m | 27% | 4.3% | 40bps |
| Property services | £31m | 15% | £0.3m | 200% | 1.0% | 60bps |
| Partnership Housing | £200m | 9% | £5.5m | 20% | 2.8% | 30bps |
| Urban Regeneration | £71m | £78% | £2m | -57% | 0% | n/a |
Across the business there was a significant rise in average daily net cash to £132m. The group the order book rose 5% to £3.8bn.
Chief Executive, John Morgan said: “This is a strong set of results, driven by another period of margin and profit growth in fit-out and further progress on margin recovery in Construction & Infrastructure.
“With the current trading patterns in fit-out and the forward visibility provided by the size and quality of its order book, together with further margin improvement in construction & infrastructure and an increase in scheme completions in partnership housing and urban regeneration, we are confident of another strong performance by the group in the second half.”
