Tough trading delivers profits blow to Tolent
BUILDING and civil engineering company Tolent posted a drop in its first-half operating profits today but said its steady order book should help it ride out the turbulent market.
Announcing its interim results for the six months ended June 30 2008 the group said operating profit dropped to £709,000 from £1.2m.
Tolent Construction was formed in Tyneside in 1983, and carries out all types of building and civil engineering work in the public and private sector on a national basis from offices across the country – including Leeds.
The company said turnover rose to £85m from £76m the previous year whilst pre-tax profits fell to £1.1m from £1.52m last year.
An accounting adjustment of £197,500 was made in respect of the sale of Newcastle-based Echo Buildings to a joint-venture partner.
Toelnt said the figures reflected a slowing in the level of enquiries and a lack of firm orders in the first half of the year, along with a number of projects being deferred or cancelled due to the stability of the economy and on-going fears of a recession.
The group announced a dividend of 4p despite the poor results for the period – a move which it says is supported by the strength of the balance sheet and long term prospects at the group.
Tolent said the current secured forward workload stands at £100m with a number of larger contracts running through to the end of 2009 providing “some degree of security for the short term”.
It added there are further orders totalling £70m are expected to be secured in the near future, with work commencing on site before the end of the year.
Non-executive chairman Mike Speakman said: “As noted we have a number of larger contracts which will contribute to revenues throughout the remainder of this year and into 2009. This, together with the new orders which we hope to secure in the next few months, will give us the stability to trade through this difficult period for the construction industry and economy in general.”
