Morgan Sindall sees signs of recovery as orders rise
CONSTRUCTION group Morgan Sindall posted a 28 per cent fall in full-year pre-tax profit, mainly due to lower demand for open market housing and fit-out services, and said it expected its markets to remain tough in 2010.
However, the company said yesterday that it was seeing some signs of recovery in demand for fit-out from the financial services sector and that it was confident of making good progress throughout the year.
“The strength of our order book and projects progressed to preferred bidder stage, should help to offset some of the effect of the expected further weakening of public sector spending,” Morgan Sindall said.
The company maintained its total dividend for the year at 42p after declaring a second interim dividend of 30p. For 2009, the company said its pre-tax profit fell to £44.7m from £62.3m last year. Revenue fell 13 per cent to £2.21bn.