Henry Boot has stuck its foot down to boost profit past its expectations.
Profit for the six months to June 2021 were £23.1m, a 221% increase on the same period of 2020. Revenue was also up, by 18.7%, to £129m.
The firm’s investment portfolio swelled from £92m to £106m over the six months through both acquisitions and a valuation uplift of £3.4m. Henry Boot said it had “materially stepped up” its development arm HBD, investing £34m over the six months.
CEO Tim Roberts said: “The business has performed well, responding to growing demand within our key markets. Whilst we expect profit to be weighted to the first half, the cadence of our activity will remain high, so we will continue to make excellent progress on our clear strategic targets. This will position us well for sustainable growth in the future”.
The board has declared an interim dividend of 2.42p for H1 2021, an increase of 10.0% on 2020’s 2.20p.
Henry Boot stated at the start of the year that it would increase capital employed by more than 40% to £500m, in its three key markets of industrial and logistics, residential and urban development. It hopes to generate a return on average capital employed of 10-15% over the medium term, which currently stands at 6.3%.
Earnings per share grew 244% to 14.1p.
See also: Tim Roberts on building a £500m business at Henry Boot
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