Social housing and maintenance specialist Connaught was upbeat about the future as it reported a pre-tax profit of £13m in the year ending 31 August, up by almost half.

This is a 46% increase on the previous year, following a 25% rise in revenue to £300m. Its biggest division, social housing, contributed £240m to turnover while its gas servicing business generated the remainder.

Mark Tincknall, the chairman, said: “The results are all through organic growth. It’s driven by a change in the procurement process, which means clients are bundling up services and bigger companies are in a better position to carry out the work.”

He added that 55% of work over the year came from repeat business.

Connaught has secured much of its future earnings, as its £1.7bn order book already supports 95% of its 2007 and 84% of its 2008 forecasted revenue.

In August Connaught announced it was moving from alternative investment market to the main listing. Tincknall said: “We want to broaden our investor base and some investors felt we’re at a size where we needed the governance that comes with a full listing.”