黑洞社区

Morgan Sindall cheered investors this morning saying full year profits will be better than expected and announcing it will resume dividend payments next month 鈥� having paid back the 拢9.5m it received from the government鈥檚 furlough scheme last week.

In the summer, the firm, which blamed a 62% fall in interim pre-tax profit on the disruption caused by the covid-19 crisis in the first half of the year, said the company was on course for a 拢50m to 拢60m pre-tax profit this year 鈥� down from the 拢88.6m it recorded in 2019.

But in a trading update, Morgan Sindall said it was revising this upwards and that it will 鈥渄eliver a full year performance which is slightly above the top end of the previously guided range鈥�.

The firm said last Saturday鈥檚 announcement by the prime minister of second lockdown starting tomorrow (Thursday) would not have the same impact as the one announced in March when hundreds of sites were mothballed and contractors were forced to put thousands of staff on the government鈥檚 furlough scheme.

It added: 鈥淎ny further disruption to the Group as a result of these newly-announced restrictions is not expected to be material to the current year鈥檚 performance.鈥�

In August, chief executive John Morgan told 黑洞社区 paying back the furlough money was 鈥渢he right thing to do鈥� and in this morning鈥檚 announcement, the firm confirmed the 拢9.5m had been paid back at the end of last month. It said 拢7.7m was repaid directly with the remaining 拢1.8m paid as additional corporation tax.

Some quoted contractors and housebuilders had felt uneasy about paying dividends while accepting taxpayers鈥� cash with John Tutte, the executive chairman of Redrow, which turned down 拢8m of furlough money, saying in September: 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 seem right to be taking government money and resuming payments to shareholders.鈥�

Now it has repaid the furlough money, Morgan Sindall said it will pay out a 21p per share dividend on 8 December having suspended the payment at the time of its interim results in August.

The firm, which is building a 拢98m secondary school and leisure centre (pictured) in Hackney, east London, for the local council, said it expected its average daily net cash for the full year to be over 拢150m, which it said was ahead of guidance and up on the 拢99m for 2019.

Morgan Sindall said trading at its four divisions, including its two biggest, construction and infrastructure and fit-out, were performing well. Divisional margins at the construction business were expected to be higher than 2%, it added.

The firm鈥檚 order book at the end of September was 拢7.9bn, up 5% from the year-end.