Morrison, the quoted construction group, has put finance director Stephen McBrierty in charge of all its property activities, including Morrison Developments, following a major reorganisation.
McBrierty will head a newly formed property group covering commercial and residential development in the UK and abroad, Morrison’s building arm and its private finance initiative division.
Martin Winward, managing director of Morrison Develop-ments, will report to McBrierty. The company is looking for a new group finance director.
Winward has been running Morrison’s development arm since his predecessor, Dan MacDonald, left to set up his own company, MacDonald Estates, last year.
McBrierty, who described his background as “financial rather than property”, said that he will concentrate on securing funding for Morrison’s development projects. He will also choose which markets and sec-tors the developer will target over the next two to three years.
He said that the group is still looking to secure funding for a package of seven schemes worth more than £150m, including sites in Manchester and Hounslow, West London, that it brought to the market early this year. “This is still an option we are looking at,” he said. “We have got a number of financial institutions interested in a deal.”
This week, Morrison Construction reported a rise in operating profits for its UK development arm from £4.7m to £5.6m for the six months to September 30 1998. As a whole, the group announced a rise of 13% in pretax profits to £7.6m.
See News, p40
