Billington Holdings not getting carried away over good performance
STRUCTURAL steel and engineering group Billington Holdings said it had improved profits and turnover in the first half of the year and is expecting its full year figures to be better than expected.
Executive chairman Peter Hems said that the group, based in Wombwell, near Barnsley, saw pre-tax profit increase by 9.3% to £2.53m and turnover up 5.3% to £37.4m in the six months to June 30 but said that the company is not getting “too excited” about the performance because of the uncertainty of the longer term outlook.
“We take profits on our jobs in the latter stages so this is a hangover from the past rather than representative of the market as it stands at the moment,” said Mr Hems.
Highlights of the first half included providing the structural steel for the redevelopment of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford while in the second half it has two schools projects in Barnsley and Birmingham.
The group is paying an interim dividend of 3.25p, down from 3.75p last year.
Mr Hems addded: “We are delighted that our core structural steel business is showing an increasingly robust performance in challenging conditions for the wider construction sector.
“Our established market position has given the group a strong order book which has ensured another resilient half year performance. Whilst the state of the construction sector remains a concern, the strong financial position that we have maintained for the group will support our specialist businesses as we continue to grow.”
With a history dating back to 1970, Billington Holdings was formed in June 2008 following the disposal of non-core assets and change of name from Amco Corporation and is made up of three divisions, structural steel, which designs, manufactures and erects structural steelwork for commercial and public sector buildings and supplies customers including Balfour Beatty and Bovis; safety solutions which sells and rents protection and safety products to the construction industry, and Dosco Overseas Engineering which designs and manufactures roadheading and tunnelling machines for the mining and civil engineering industries worldwide.
The group had a cash balance of £8.64m at June 30 compared with £3.98m at the end of December 2008.
