Morgan Sindall profits up, turnover down
Morgan Sindall Group, whose North West interests include Muse Developments, house builder Lovell and fit-out firm Overbury, reported improved pre-tax profit in 2012 on reduced turnover.
Profit before tax, amortisation and non-recurring items was £47.1m (2011: £45.3m) on revenues of £2,047m (2011: £2,227m.) Adjusted earnings per share were 79.3p (2011: 86.7p). The dividend for the year is 27.0p/share (2011: 42.0p).
The group's construction order book currently stands at £3.1bn (2011: £3.4bn) with £500m (2011: £300m) of projects at preferred bidder stage.
The construction division, also called Morgan Sindall, is currently building the new-look Old Trafford cricket ground for Lancashire County Cricket Club.
The development pipeline at 31 December 2012 was £2.1bn (2011: £1.8bn) with a further £400m (2011: £600m) of regeneration schemes at preferred developer stage.
Muse, based in Salford Quays, has development agreements in place on major projects with Stockport, Blackpool, Salford and Warrington councils.
"Muse had another strong year in the North West in 2012, bucking the trend once again in the face of a challenging market," says Mike Horner, regional director for the North West.
"A number of our projects are now in the construction phase, being delivered on site, yet we remain keen to grow the Muse portfolio in the North West further by securing more quality projects."
In November, Adrian Martin was appointed as chairman with founder John Morgan returning to the position of chief executive. David Mulligan will step down as finance director at the end of February 2013 to be succeeded by Steve Crummett, formerly finance director at Filtrona.
Shares in Morgan Sindall fell 9% to 523p on Tuesday morning.
