Muse Developments turns a profit

PROPERTY company Muse Developments turned a profit in its first full year of trading since its acquisition by listed construction group Morgan Sindall.

The Salford-based company, which was acquired by Morgan Sindall in July 2007, made a pre-tax profit of £3.9m on a turnover of £83.6m, for the year to the end of December 2008.

There are no comparable accounts for the previous year, although turnover for the five months from July 27 to the end of December 2007 stood at £30.8m.

In all more than 700,000 sq ft of offices, industrial, leisure and residential facilities were completed by the company during the year.

The group’s share of the development pipeline of projects in which it has an interest is estimated at £1.3bn, while the group’s share of expected revenue of two projects secured during 2009 is valued at £520m.

Matt Crompton, joint managing director of Muse, told TheBusinessDesk: “We are in a very good place in a very bad market, that’s been consistent then and now.

“We’ve been going nearly 30 years and this is our third attempt at recession.”

In its directors’ report, signed off at the end of October this year, the company said it was responding to the challenges of the market by revisiting existing plans and rephrasing developments.

It added that Muse’s business model provides it with a degree of insulation from adverse cost and value corrections, as it does not hold substantial land assets.

Mr Crompton would not give any indications of how the business has performed during 2009, but added: “Judging by how our peers are performing, we are doing in the market, a market which has fallen even since 2008 levels.

“We are pleased with how the company has performed during the year, which is regarded as worse than 2008.”