Progress on Morgan Sindall’s urban regeneration schemes has helped off-set the impact of legacy loss-making construction contracts and a loss in the company’s investment division.
The company is on track to deliver positive growth in the full year in line with guidance issued by chief executive John Morgan at the company’s results in February 2015.
This is despite posting a pre-tax loss of £27.2m at its half year results published in August.
The urban regeneration division delivered an operating profit of £5m in the first half of the year, which combined with positive momentum in fit-out and affordable housing is expected to off-set the construction division which the company said yesterday “continues to gradually improve compared to the first half of the year” in which it posted an operating profit of £0.3m, down from £5.9m the previous year.
The group’s order books at 30 September was up 1% to £2.7bn from the start of the year.
While urban regeneration remains a bright spot for the company, management warned that the final completion of some developments remained dependent upon third party construction programmes in the final quarter of the year.
The investment division is expected to post an operating loss for the year of £1.-£2m “due to the phasing of its schemes”.
Note: This article corrects an earlier version which incorrectly stated that the urban regeneration division would make a loss this year.
