Morgan Sindall back in the black

Morgan Sindall, whose businesses include Aberdeen city centre office developer Muse Developments, has returned to the black in 2016.

The London-based construction services group said yesterday it made pretax profits of £43.9million last year on revenue of £2.56billion. This compares with losses of £14.8million on revenue of £2.38billion in 2015.

Morgan Sindall’s order book was up 29% by the end of last year, to £3.6billion.

Group chief executive John Morgan said: “These results demonstrate the considerable strategic and operational progress made . . . over the last few years and the underlying quality of the business.

“We are confident in the outlook and expect the positive momentum across the group to continue through 2017 and beyond.”

Muse, which has offices in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds, contributed to last year’s overall performance with £380m-worth of construction across 19 projects. The subsidiary reported a “healthy” order book and development pipeline, worth £2.4billion.

Construction on Marischal Square in Aberdeen “progressed well” during 2016, Muse added.

Stephen Turner, regional director for Scotland at Muse, said: “Construction continues on our Marischal Square scheme in Aberdeen, after the development topping out last November, and is on programme to complete in July this year.”

Around £107million is being ploughed into the Granite City development.

The ongoing construction of Marischal Square