A SHOW OF STEEL
Severfield says full-year results will be comfortably ahead of expectations
BRITAIN’S BIGGEST steel work contractor Severfield said its full year results will be “comfortably ahead” of expectations after it announced a 60 per cent leap in half year profits.
The Thirsk-based group, which has worked on the retractable roof for Wimbledon No 1 Court, the new stadium for Tottenham Hotspur FC and the Shard, said it is on track to deliver its strategic goal of doubling pre-tax profits by 2020.
Underlying pre-tax profit rose to £12.9m in the six months to September 30 and revenues rose 16 per cent to £137m.
The group has been hard at work at Wimbledon and Spurs, working around the sporting venues’ summer tournament and football season.
Alan Dunsmore, acting CEO, said: “At Spurs we have been cracking on since the end of the season. They demolished the old stadium and we have been working on the South Stand so the roof lift can happen.
“We were back on site at Wimbledon in August and we will come off again for next year’s tournament. It’s a steady progress.”
The group’s main activities are the design, fabrication and construction of structural steel for construction projects and more than 80 live projects were worked on during the half year. These cover a wide range of sectors including commercial offices, stadia and leisure, transport, industrial and distribution and power and energy.
Over the half year it worked on four large projects in London each of which have project revenues in excess of £20m. These are the new stadium for Spurs, the retractable roof for Wimbledon No.1 Court, a major new commercial head office building and a new commercial tower at 22 Bishopsgate.
Other significant projects in the period included commercial office developments in London and outside (including Southbank Place, Shard Place, Kings Cross S2 and Snowhill), the Ordsall Chord railway bridges in Manchester and Ferrybridge Power Station.
The group said its UK order book of £245m remains healthy with a good mix of projects and reflects the anticipated increase from the June position of £229m.
“This leaves us well positioned to deliver good revenue performance both in the second half of the current year and into the next financial year,” said Mr Dunsmore.
“The current order book, of which £216m is for delivery over the next 12 months, provides visibility of earnings and remains at a level which supports continued progress towards our strategic targets.“
Significant new orders secured in the period include a number of commercial office developments in London and in Cardiff, industrial and distribution projects for a variety of clients, two large data centres in Belgium and Ireland and a pharmaceutical facility in Ireland.
“Encouragingly, the UK market continues to appear stable and the pipeline for potential future orders remains good,” said Mr Dunsmore.
“We’ve not seen any Brexit fall out. One big project that is still to be awarded is the new Google HQ. We’ve tendered just now for it.”
The group recently finished work on the new London head office for Goldman Sachs.
Encouragingly, the UK market continues to appear stable. Alan Dunsmore, acting chief executive of Severfield