Egerton's comments came as Taylor Woodrow announced a 22% increase in pre-tax profit to £100m for the year to 31 December 1998, up from £82.1m on the previous year. Group turnover rose to £1.4bn from £1.3bn.
The group's construction activities returned a pre-tax profit of £6.1m, up 15% on 1997's figure of £5.3m. Turnover was up 6% to £614m.
Taylor Woodrow's housing and property activities contributed almost 80% of group profit. Chairman Colin Parsons praised Taylor Woodrow's US housing operation, which increased its profit to £26m from £13.5m in 1997 and contributed more than a quarter of total returns.
A spokesman for Taylor Woodrow said: "The focus of the group is housing and property. There is still a future in construction but it is in lower-risk activity, such as partnering arrangements with certain clients and PFI projects, not speculative tendering." The spokesman also confirmed that the group was in the process of reducing its overseas civils operations.
He said: "Hong Kong is still attractive for construction work but other overseas areas such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia don't look positive at the moment."
