Edgbaston developer sees revenues fall
CONSTRUCTION and housebuilding group Galliford Try, the company developing the new £32m stand at Edgbaston cricket ground, has announced revenue of £1.22bn in the year to the end of June.
The figure is down 16% (£1.46bn) on the previous year. The pre exceptional profit before tax was up 6.5% to £26.1m (2009: £24.5m).
Post exceptional profit before tax was £19.2m (2009 loss: £26.9m).
A net exceptional cost of £6.9m (2009: £51.4m) has been accounted for in the results.
Dividend was raised 15% to 12.5p per share.
The group said execution of its housebuilding expansion plan was on track and 58% of the current 9,700 plot land bank was acquired at current market values.
There was a 30% increase in sales currently reserved, contracted or completed at £263m (2009: £202m).
The 2.4% construction margin gave a year-end cash balance of £207m (2009: 2.4% and £237 million).
There was a 6% increase in the contracting order book to £1.8bn.
As detailed in the half year statement, in September 2009 Galliford Try was one of 103 companies found by the Office of Fair Trading to be in breach of the 1998 competition act through three instances of “cover pricing” that had taken place between the years 2001 and 2004, and that it was being fined £8.3m. The Group has submitted an appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in respect of the size of the penalty imposed, however an outcome is not expected until late in 2010.
Basic pre exceptional earnings per share are 24.6p (2009 restated: 35.8p) with post exceptional earnings per share of 14.7p (2009 restated loss: 34.4p).
Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive, said: “We are on track to deliver the housebuilding expansion plan we set out at the time of the rights issue in September 2009.
“We have been encouraged by the level of sales and prices achieved since the start of our new financial year when set against the backdrop of the effect on consumer confidence of the current economic uncertainty. Our presence across the more resilient markets in the South, and the opportunities we continue to generate from our leading position in affordable housing and on regeneration schemes underpin our progress.
“We have maintained a quality construction order book in increasingly challenging market conditions and anticipated reductions in public sector work.
“The strength of the group’s finances and the spread of its activities leaves us, subject to economic uncertainties, well positioned to deliver our planned progress.”
