Firm buoyed by ongoing fit-out boom

Morgan Sindall has said it is on course to meet analysts’ expectations of more than £130m pre-tax profit this year, the firm confirmed in a trading update this morning.

Analysts are expecting the firm to post revenue of £3.67bn this year with the consensus for pre-tax profit coming in at around £134m.

It said its fit-out and construction businesses were performing well with the former described as “very strong”.

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The firm said its construction business was continuing to perform well

But in line with housebuilders in general, the firm said its partnerships housing business was below prior year levels while margins at its property services arm had been hit by “disappointing contract delivery”.

Its order book at the end of March was £8.8bn, a rise of 2% on the same period last time while average daily net cash from 1 January to 2 May was £281m, up from £278m for the same period last year.

Morgan Sindall chief executive John Morgan said he expected average daily net cash for the full year to be around £250m.

The said a cladding charge to fix historic defects on buildings meant pre-tax profit last year was dragged down a third to £85m on turnover up 12% to £3.6bn