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Lendlease said its construction arm had put in a 鈥渟olid performance鈥� as it announced an 11% dip in pre-tax profit for the six months to 31 December 2019.

Chief executive Steve MCann said the group鈥檚 construction operation posted revenues of A$4.3bn (拢2.2bn), in line with expectations, and delivered a 2.3% margin, up from 2.1% year-on-year.

The firm, which is currently working on the 拢8bn Thamesmead residential scheme in south east London with housing association Peabody, said overall pre-tax profit for the period came in at A$403m (拢208m).

Total turnover dipped 8% to A$5.6bn (拢2.9bn), according to the group, which is also working on Google鈥檚 headquarters in London鈥檚 King鈥檚 Cross district and the Timberyard residential development in the Deptford area of the capital.

In December Lendlease agreed to offload its troubled engineering business to Acciona Infrastructure Asia Pacific for A$180m (拢93m).

Lendlease鈥檚 engineering arm had helped drag down its performance in 2018, and 12 months ago was deemed to be no longer required by the firm. McCann said the proposed sale was 鈥渁n important milestone鈥� which would enable the group to focus on its core operations.

The sale, which excludes Lendlease鈥檚 work on the problem Melbourne metro tunnel project, is expected to complete in the second half of the firm鈥檚 financial year.

The group鈥檚 overall order book was reported at A$14bn (拢7.2bn), while its development pipeline rose by a third to A$112bn (拢58bn).

Lendlease will announce its annual results on 17 August.