Sindall sees order book fall down as public cuts bite
THE forward order book for Warwickshire construction and infrastructure company Morgan Sindall is down from the half year, its parent company said today.
In an interim management statement for the period from July 1, Morgan Sindall Group said its construction work was being impacted by public sector spending cuts.
It added that commercial activity at Rugby-based Morgan Sindall was beginning to pick up gradually in London and the South East.
“Infrastructure markets remain healthy, and the division expects to see opportunities in power distribution, airports, rail and roads, where it has an established track record,” the statement said.
“There are significant opportunities at preferred bidder stage, including a £500m overhead line partnership for National Grid in joint venture with Vinci Energies.”
Tamworth-based Lovell, the group’s affordable housing division, has seen a “robust” performance in the second half of the year.
The group said today, following the £560m allocation of funds to registered social landlords, it expected to see a number of new-build social housing opportunities emerge in the coming months.
“Conditions in open market housing continue to be constrained by mortgage conditions albeit house sales and values have improved through the summer and into the autumn,” it added.
“We continue to make good progress with the recovery of the work in progress and debt acquired in relation to the Connaught acquisition, the total recovered currently standing at £19m, in line with our expectations.”
The statement added that an emphasis on regeneration had grown the group’s regeneration pipeline from £1.8bn to £2.2bn since the half year, with a further £900m of regeneration opportunities at preferred developer stage.
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