Morgan Sindall PLC
19 December 2006
Morgan Sindall plc
Pre-close Trading Update
The Board of Morgan Sindall plc today announces a trading update, prior to its
close period, for the year to 31 December 2006. The Group's preliminary results
will be announced in February 2007.
Trading
Overall the Group has made further progress during the year and is trading in
line with expectations and again seeing year on year growth.
Fit Out's market has remained buoyant and the division has traded strongly
throughout the current period. In November the division secured its biggest
contract to date with Deloitte, which is in line with its stated intention of
delivering larger scale projects. Overall the forward order book has been
maintained at a level similar to June 2006 and this order book supports our view
that the current market strength will continue well into 2007.
Construction continues to focus on its target sectors of health, education,
light industrial and commercial. Revenue and profit for 2006 are expected to
increase modestly on 2005 and the forward order book has been broadly
maintained.
Infrastructure Services has been very successful in securing £800m of new
contracts across the infrastructure, utilities, tunnelling and rail sectors,
which is expected to lead to increased revenue and profit in 2007. In
particular, the new rail business is performing well and is expected to
contribute significantly to this growth. However, as previously announced, the
combination of the reorganisation of the division in the first half of the year
and the commencement of new contracts will impact margins in 2006.
Affordable Housing's margin continues to grow strongly. Current workload is
balanced between new build and refurbishment activities, with the Decent Homes
frameworks continuing to be an important part of the division's workload.
However, we expect future growth to be increasingly driven by larger, more
complex mixed tenure schemes. The forward order book has been maintained and
there are also a number of larger scale opportunities in the pipeline.
Overall the forward order book stands at £3.4bn, an increase of 22% since the
beginning of the year. This reflects, in particular, the strong market
conditions in Fit Out and Infrastructure Services. Average cash balances will
be lower than in the previous year owing to the £23m acquisition in March of the
non-track rail business and further investment in working capital at Affordable
Housing. All of our markets continue to demonstrate growth and the outlook for
the Group remains positive.
19 December 2006
Enquiries:
Morgan Sindall plc Tel: 020 7307 9200
Paul Smith, Chief Executive
David Mulligan, Finance Director
College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020
Matthew Smallwood
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