Final Results
Galliford Try PLC
10 September 2001
GALLIFORD TRY PLC
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 30 JUNE 2001
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
* Turnover including share of joint ventures and associates up 25% to
£571 million
* Profit before tax and exceptional items increased by 28% to £15.1
million
* Earnings per share before exceptional items up 21% to 5.1p
* Final dividend of 0.9p per share making 1.4p total for the year
* Return on shareholders funds before exceptional items of 35%
* After exceptional merger, rationalisation and contract provision
costs the profit before tax was £4.9 million with earnings per share of
1.5p
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
* Successful merger has created greater business opportunities and
economies of scale
* Strong, high quality construction order book at record £419 million
* Housebuilding sales in hand currently over 50% up on previous year
Tony Palmer, Chairman of Galliford Try, commented:
'I am very pleased with the good progress made following last September's
merger of Galliford and Try to form Galliford Try plc. We have created a
business of a size and strength to operate as a significant player in the
construction market and as a leading regional housebuilder. The progress of
the business to date, and our strong financial base, will enable us to
continue to grow and deliver shareholder value.'
For further enquiries please contact:
David Calverley, Chief Executive 01895 855219 (020 7398 3300 on 10 Sept)
George Marsh, Deputy Chief Executive 01455 222707 ' ' '
Frank Nelson, Finance Director 01895 855226 ' ' '
Ann Marie Wilkinson, Beattie Financial 020 7398 3300
CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
I am very pleased to report the good progress made following the merger of
Galliford and Try to form Galliford Try plc in September 2000.
Profit before tax and exceptional items increased by 28% to £15.1 million and
earnings per share rose by 21% to 5.1p. After exceptional items profit before
tax was £4.9 million and earnings per share were 1.5p. Turnover, including
share of joint ventures and associates, increased by 25% to £571 million. The
directors are recommending a final dividend of 0.9p per share, making a total
of 1.4p for the year, an increase of 7.7% on 2000. Year end gearing was 32%,
which we expect to rise as our investment in housebuilding grows.
We have already achieved the cost and synergy savings originally identified at
the time of the merger and are optimistic that we will improve further on the
overall savings of £3 million per annum currently projected.
We suffered one disappointing setback when it became apparent that tests on a
high specification floor in a distribution depot being built at Daventry
showed that it may not have met its performance criteria. As we announced on
26 July, we have taken a £6.5 million pre tax exceptional provision against
the potential loss on the contract. Investigation into the cause and
liability is ongoing and positive progress is being made on the way forward.
STRATEGY
Our strategy in construction is to be market leader in delivering a complete
construction service through a partnership approach with a strong sector
focus. In housebuilding it is to be a leading regional developer with strong
local brands, specialising in individually designed developments with an
expertise in brownfield and conversion. Our objective is to achieve upper
quartile performance compared to our peer group in both financial and
non-financial performance.
CONSTRUCTION
We have made good progress in realising the benefits of our merger, and we are
already seeing the advantages of our new national coverage. Construction
turnover was substantially higher at £457 million with a pre-exceptional
operating profit of £6.2 million, which represents an operating margin of
1.4%, a level that we are confident will improve as the full effect of our
synergy savings and sector focus works through.
We are delivering on the objectives set at the time of the merger,
specifically:
Enhanced service
We are providing an enhanced service to our customers. Galliford Try now
operates nationally via five regional business units offering services from
concept to construction, project finance and facilities management. Our
partnership approach and increased size enables us to work on both the larger
and longer term contracts increasingly sought by our customers.
Business flow
During the year we took over complete responsibility for the £63m Millennium
Point project in Birmingham, secured more work from our long-term partnership
with The All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon and were recently awarded a
£34 million project to construct a luxury hotel just off the M25 near Watford.
We retain strong relationships with businesses such as British Waterways
Board, Compass Roadside, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Grosvenor, John Laing Property
and Syngenta who have construction programmes that enable us to continuously
improve our service to our mutual benefit. With other major national
contractors restructuring their construction services and moving their focus
away from our market sectors our strategy has placed us in a good position to
take advantage of such opportunities.
Market focus
We have focussed on clearly defined market sectors. Our expertise in the
commercial and industrial sectors concentrates on office, leisure and
industrial buildings. Our infrastructure skills encompass water engineering,
highways and railway projects. Telecommunications provides a growing
workload, and we acquired Burton Communications, a rigging specialist, during
the year to offer a wider service to customers.
Our strong track record in the social housing, education and health
marketplaces has led to an increasing workload in the public sector,
particularly through public finance initiative and public private partnership
opportunities. Following on from the £80m Birmingham Schools project awarded
the previous year, Galliford Try secured a pathfinder PFI project for a
further education college at Newbury in Berkshire, and has begun work on the £
10.5m construction phase.
Margin improvements and order book
Our aim is to achieve an operating margin of 2%. We achieved a pre
exceptional operating margin of 1.4% for the year. As the impact of our
synergy savings and better quality order book works through into production,
we are confident that our margin and quality of earnings will improve. Our
forward order book is standing at a record level of £419 million, of which 70%
was secured through negotiation and value added criteria rather than pure
price competition.
HOUSEBUILDING
An operating profit of £12.8 million was achieved on a turnover largely
unchanged of £111 million. 781 homes were completed during the year at an
average selling price of £142,000.
Land bank and margins
We have made considerable progress in the year to improve the quality and
maintain the size of our land bank in line with our strategy for growth. We
now have the planning consents to significantly increase production in the
coming year. In total, our land bank stands at 2044 plots representing 2.6
years at current production levels, and in addition we have 350 acres of
strategic land holdings under option.
We currently achieve higher margins in the South East from our predominantly
urban and brownfield business with lower returns from the South West and
Eastern Counties. We are confident that with our regional initiatives and the
cost and synergy savings our enlarged business can now deliver, we will be
able to achieve improvements on our current overall margin of 11.5%.
South East
Try Homes urban bias and focus on conversions led to 95% of production coming
from brownfield sites. There remains significant scope for expansion around
London, and building on our successful businesses in the Thames Valley and
southern counties we have recently formed a north Thames region which we
expect to start contributing to profits in the next financial year.
South West
Two selective acquisitions were made to add to the land bank and extend the
target markets of Midas Homes. Gerald Wood Homes, a developer of higher value
properties in attractive village locations was acquired in April, followed by
Exeter based Knapp Homes in July. These acquisitions have added 239 plots to
our land bank.
Eastern Counties
Stamford Homes is more dependent on greenfield development to meet the market
demand. We are looking to improve margins in this business, increase the
proportion of homes developed on brownfield sites and direct our land
acquisitions towards more urban based developments.
OUTLOOK
We expect to operate in a low inflation market over the next twelve months
with overall growth in Galliford Try's core markets but with significant
variations in particular sectors. Better levels of growth are anticipated in
the social housing, education and health sectors driven by Government
expenditure and the continued use of PFI/PPP. We anticipate fewer
opportunities in the commercial sector although a good market is expected in
infrastructure and utilities.
We expect house price inflation will slow from the levels of the past twelve
months but with interest rates at their lowest levels for 40 years, overall
affordability is likely to remain within acceptable parameters. Planning
constraints and underlying demand are likely to prevent any tendency to over
supply in the market and support gradually increasing prices.
Galliford Try's construction order book at £419 million is at its highest
level ever as we enter the new financial year and the quality of the orders is
extremely encouraging. We have an excellent level of housebuilding sales in
hand that are over 50% up on last year. Our planned profit growth will be
driven by a combination of increasing turnover and improving margins. Our
successful merger has given us the platform and financial strength to expand
both organically and by acquisition. With reasonable economic conditions, we
expect to make further progress over the coming year.
Tony Palmer
Chairman
10 September 2001
CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT
For the year ended 30 June 2001
2001 2000
Pre- Exceptional Total Total
Exceptional Items (restated)
£000 £000 £000 £000
Turnover:
Continuing operations 568,740 568,740 458,374
Acquisitions 1,933 1,933 -
Total continuing operations 570,673 570,673 458,374
Less share of joint ventures' and (2,115) (2,115) (3,872)
associates' turnover
Group turnover 568,558 568,558 454,502
Cost of sales (524,400) (6,500)(530,900) (418,751)
Gross profit 44,158 (6,500) 37,658 35,751
Net operating expenses - administrative
expenses (28,185) (1,996) (30,181) (23,117)
Group operating profit:
Continuing operations 15,726 (8,496) 7,230 12,634
Acquisitions 247 247 -
15,973 (8,496) 7,477 12,634
Share of profits in joint ventures 218 218 337
Share of profits in associates 228 228 148
Merger expenses - (1,716) (1,716) -
Profit on ordinary activities before
interest 16,419 (10,212) 6,207 13,119
Net interest (payable)/ receivable:
Group (1,187) (1,187) (1,099)
Joint ventures 12 12 (56)
Associates (118) (118) (116)
(1,293) (1,293) (1,271)
Profit on ordinary activities before
tax 15,126 (10,212) 4,914 11,848
Tax (4,285) 2,504 (1,781) (2,922)
Profit on ordinary activities after tax 10,841 (7,708) 3,133 8,926
Dividends (3,026) (2,264)
Profit for the period 107 6,662
Earnings per ordinary share (pence) 5.10 (3.63) 1.47 4.20
Diluted earnings per share (pence) 4.97 (3.53) 1.44 4.09
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
At 30 June 2001
Group Group
2001 2000
£000 £000
restated
Fixed assets:
Intangible assets: goodwill 698 -
Tangible assets 12,032 10,908
Investments in joint ventures:
Share of gross assets 2,020 2,869
Share of gross liabilities (1,670) (2,541)
350 328
Investments in associates 81 101
Other investments 990 461
14,151 11,798
Current assets:
Stocks 337 309
Developments 113,300 91,413
Debtors 102,361 72,745
Cash at bank & in hand 22,371 11,092
238,369 175,559
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (196,340) (135,341)
Net current assets 42,029 40,218
Total assets less current liabilities 56,180 52,016
Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year (10,555) (6,436)
Provisions for liabilities and charges (1,586) (2,216)
44,039 43,364
Capital and reserves:
Called up share capital 10,845 10,703
Share premium account 1,045 519
Merger reserve 4,687 4,618
Revaluation reserve 1,919 1,923
Other reserves 35 204
Profit and loss account 25,508 25,397
Equity shareholders' funds 44,039 43,364
STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES
For the year ended 30 June 2001
2001 2000
£000 £000
Profit for the financial year:
Group 2,844 8,727
Joint ventures 179 167
Associates 110 32
Total recognised gains and losses for the year 3,133 8,926
Prior year adjustment (1,908) -
Total gains and losses recognised since last annual report 1,225 8,926
The reported profit for the year is not materially different from the profit
on an unmodified historical cost basis.
CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
For the year ended 30 June 2001 2001 2000
£000 £000
Net cash (inflow)/outflow from activities (7,761) 20,346
Dividends from joint ventures 100 144
Returns on investments and servicing of finance:
Interest received 195 238
Interest paid (1,417) (1,453)
Loan note interest paid (49) (64)
Interest element of finance lease rentals (6) (6)
Net cash outflow from returns on investments and
servicing of finance (1,277) (1,285)
Taxation (2,880) (1,217)
Capital expenditure and financial investment:
Purchase of tangible fixed assets (2,777) (1,664)
Sale of tangible fixed assets 97 198
Net cash outflow for capital expenditure and
financial investment (2,680) (1,466)
Acquisitions and disposals:
Increase in investment in joint ventures (95) (1,050)
Purchase of own shares (445) (239)
Increase in other investments (298) -
Receipts from sales of investments in associates - 358
Payments to acquire investments in subsidiaries (202) (1,350)
Realisation of investment in joint ventures 152 -
Realisation of other investments - 254
Exceptional merger expenses (1,716) -
(2,604) (2,027)
Equity dividends paid (2,269) (2,116)
Net cash (outflow)/inflow before use of liquid
resources and financing (19,371) 12,379
Management of liquid resources:
Decrease in short term deposits with banks 1,222 1,151
Financing:
Issue of ordinary share capital 438 57
Capital element of finance lease rental payments (60) (23)
Increase/(decrease) in bank loans 30,306 (6,246)
Repayment of loan notes (34) (50)
Borrowings acquired with subsidiary - 1,350
Funding of associated undertakings losses - (117)
30,650 (5,029)
Increase in cash in the period 12,501 8,501
Notes to cash flow statement
1. Analysis of changes in net debt
At 1 Cash Borrowings acquired with At 30
July flow subsidiary June
2000 2001
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Cash at bank and in 9,870 12,501 22,371
hand
Loan notes (1,052) (162) (1,214)
Bank loans (3,431) (30,306) (1,474) (35,211)
5,387 (17,967) (1,474) (14,054)
Finance lease (90) 60 (30)
obligations
5,297 (17,907) (1,474) (14,084)
Liquid resources 1,222 (1,222) 0
Net cash/(debt) 6,519 (19,129) (1,474) (14,084)
2. Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net debt
Increase in cash in the period 12,501 8,501
(Increase)/decrease in debt and lease financing (30,408) 6,319
Borrowings acquired with subsidiary (1,474) (1,350)
Reduction in short term deposits with banks (1,222) (1,151)
Change in net (debt)/cash in the period (20,603) 12,319
Net cash/(debt) at start of period 6,519 (5,800)
Net(debt)/cash at end of period (14,084) 6,519
SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS
Turnover Turnover
including Associates including Associates
associates and joint associates and joint
and joint ventures Group and joint ventures Group
ventures turnover turnover ventures turnover turnover
2001 2001 2001 2000 2000 2000
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Construction 457,299 854 456,445 347,168 1,339 345,829
Housebuilding 111,380 - 111,380 109,711 2,151 107,560
Group 1,994 1,261 733 1,495 382 1,113
Sub-total 570,673 2,115 568,558 458,374 3,872 454,502
Acquisitions in the year account for turnover of £246,000 in construction and
£1,687,000 in housebuilding.
Construction includes joint ventures' turnover of £854,000, (2000: £1,339,000)
and housebuilding includes joint ventures' turnover of £nil (2000: £
2,151,000). The associates' turnover of £1,261,000 (2000: £382,000) is
included in group. All turnover arises in the United Kingdom.
Profit/(loss) before Profit/(loss) Net assets/(liabilities)
exceptional items and interest before
interest
2001 2000 2001 2000 2001 2000
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Construction 6,244 3,896 (452) 3,896 (13,683) (7,662)
Housebuilding 12,810 12,102 12,810 12,102 68,751 28,185
Group (2,635) (2,879) (6,151) (2,879) 3,055 16,322
Sub-total 16,419 13,119 6,207 13,119 58,123 36,845
Net cash (14,084) 6,519
44,039 43,364
Acquisitions in the year accounted for profit before interest of £70,000 in
construction and £177,000 in housebuilding.
The share of profits in the joint ventures relating to construction of £94,000
(2000: £271,000) and housebuilding of £17,000 (2000: £66,000) is included in
profit before interest. The share of net assets/(liabilities) relating to the
joint ventures included in construction and housebuilding is £331,000 (2000: £
931,000) and £19,000 (2000: £122,000) respectively.
The share of profits of £228,000 (2000: £148,000) and of net liabilities of £
nil (2000: £175,000) relating to associates are included in group
NOTES TO THE PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
1. Basis of preparation
As previously reported Galliford plc merged with Try Group PLC in September
2000 and changed its name to Galliford Try plc. The combination has been
accounted for using merger accounting. All the figures are consolidated and
have been reviewed by the auditors. The financial information for the year
ended 30 June 2001 has been prepared on the basis of the accounting policies
of Galliford Try plc and in accordance with applicable UK accounting
standards. The year end for Try Group PLC has been changed from 31 December to
30 June. For the year ended 30 June 2000 the audited results of Galliford plc
have been combined with six months of Try Group PLC's results for the year to
31 December 1999, which were audited and filed at Companies House, and its
interim results for the six months to 30 June 2000, which were reviewed by the
auditors.
Galliford Try plc has changed the presentation of its profit and loss account
from the Companies Act format 2 to format 1. Format 1 is used by the group's
business units for management reporting and is more widely used by other
construction and housebuilding companies.
2. Alignment of accounting policies
There were no accounting policy changes resulting from the merger other than
the alignment of the two groups' policies in respect of revenue recognition in
the housebuilding businesses where revenue is recognised at legal completion
rather than at exchange of contracts. The effect of this on the previous year,
to 30 June 2000, has been to increase its turnover by £5,513,000 and profit by
£1,005,000.
3. Change of accounting policy
Following the adoption of FRS18 'Accounting Policies' by the group during the
year the policy in respect of investment in PFI/PPP projects has been changed.
Previously the investment was carried until the outcome of the project was
determined. Under the new policy bid costs and investments are not carried in
the balance sheet as recoverable until the group has been appointed preferred
bidder or has received an indemnity in respect of the investment or costs. The
main effect of this change relates to the group's interest in Rapid Transport
International Limited and has been to reduce the reserves at 1 July 1999 by £
1,044,000 and the profit for the year to 30 June 2000 by £864,000 in the
construction segment. Investments have been reduced by £1,908,000 accordingly.
4. Final dividend
Subject to approval at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 2 November
2001, the final dividend of 0.9p per share will be paid on 6 November 2001 to
shareholders on the register on 5 October 2001.