Billington cancels interim dividend

13th Sep 2011 09:00

Shares in Billington Holdings, the structural steel and engineering firm, fell 8% this morning after it posted losses and cancelled its interim dividend.Revenue was £22.8m, up from £21.3m, in the six months to the end of June.But the company posted a pre-tax loss of £600,000, down from a £1.1m profit in the same period last year. Billington said it would not pay an interim dividend "because of the current sustained difficult economic environment and a desire to maintain cash resources within the group"."Protracted and difficult economic conditions in the UK remain, and, the directors believe that when combined with a capacity imbalance of steelwork contractors, this has resulted in margins remaining poor," the firm said."We are under no illusions, even though we expect margin pressures to ease in 2012; we realise that the construction market recovery will be a slow one," it added.However, Billington said the launch of its joint venture with Bourne Steel, BS2, would enable it to bid for larger projects."The introduction of a third player into the large project environment seems to have been well received in the market and it is hoped it will yield opportunities in the very near future," the firm said.