Financial

A “selective approach” to projects helped RG Carter boost pre-tax profit last year despite a fall in revenue. Group turnover dropped by 23 per cent, falling from £322m in 2022 to £248.5m in the year ending 31 December 2023. But pre-tax profit for the year totalled £12.8m, up by 80…

Bellway has reported net debt of £57m in its latest trading update for February-June, compared with £42m in net cash for the same period in 2023. In a trading update, the housebuilder said its debt value – cash and cash equivalents, minus debt financing – reflected normal working capital requirements…

Small and medium-sized construction firms are finding it harder to access finance despite growing optimism over their prospects next year, a new survey shows. Quarterly research from business finance investment firm Bibby Financial Services (BFS) found that 58 per cent of construction SME business owners expected their order book to…

Babcock Rail is bracing itself for a lack of clarity on government plans to restructure the UK’s rail sector. The contractor has been carrying out “regular reviews” on plans for a publicly-owned Great British Railways (GBR) company but said it considered government infrastructure policy as a “key uncertainty”. The comments…

Tide Construction has reported a fall in pre-tax profit despite an 11 per cent jump in revenue.  The London-based company, which specialises in building high-density residential schemes using modular methods, has reported a pre-tax profit of £7.1m for the year ending 31 August 2023 - down from £11.1m a year…

Seddon Group has returned to profit after imposing tighter cost control and limiting its exposure to new long-term contracts. Turnover rose by 4.4 per cent from £153.9m in 2022 to £160.7m the following year, the Bolton-based firm’s latest accounts show. This generated a pre-tax profit of £1.6m compared with a…

Inflationary pressures and higher interest rates failed to stop Essex-based D&B Scaffolding from posting higher revenue and profit for last year. Its latest accounts, covering the year ending 31 August 2023, show that turnover increased by 2.2 per cent from £18.5m to £18.9m. And pre-tax profit almost doubled from £1m…

Welsh firm Andrew Scott has been appointed to finish one of collapsed contractor Buckingham Group’s remaining schemes. Andrew Scott will finish a multistorey car park and commercial site in the centre of Swansea, after the project stalled following Buckingham’s descent into administration. Buckingham had been delivering the Copr Bay scheme,…

Oxfordshire County Council has had to spend more than £13m on fixing defects in buildings once worked on by Carillion. The council found problems with dozens of schools that required remediation in the years following the company’s collapse, the BBC reported yesterday. Carillion was the UK’s second-biggest contractor by turnover…

Contractor United Living is expanding further into the infrastructure market As construction firms face significant financial pressure, diversification is an attractive option to spread business risk. This is easier said than done, of course, and is arguably more achievable by large firms with a strong capital base. A case in…