Profits fall at Morgan Sindall

9th Aug 2010 07:34

First half sales and profits fell at contractor and support service group Morgan Sindall as activity declined with the economy, though the order book is up.Revenue in the half year to June 2010 dropped 14% to £0.98bn from £1.14bn last year. Profits fell 10% to £18.4m from £20.5m."The fall is primarily due to lower levels of activity in Construction & Infrastructure partly offset by an increase in revenue at Fit Out and Urban Regeneration," Morgan said.Underlying operating profit was £22.7m (2009: £23.6m) reflecting slightly lower levels of profitability at Fit Out and Construction & Infrastructure offset by improvements at Urban Regeneration and Investments."The forward order book currently stands at £3.7bn, an increase of £0.5bn since 31 December 2009. We expect that the construction market will remain challenging but the group's broad spread of activities will provide some resilience to the changes in the market," the statement added.The interim dividend is maintained at 12p.