Galliford Try profit at upper end of range, says outlook still positive

FTSE 250 housebuilder Galliford Try reported a drop in full-year pre-tax profit on Wednesday, but the figure was at the upper end of its guidance.

In the year to the end of June, pre-tax profit declined 57% to £58.7m on group revenue of £2.7bn, up 7% from the year before. The company had said in July that full-year pre-tax profit would be at the top end of analysts' forecasts of between £46m and £59m, down from £135m a year ago.

Galliford said it saw a strong underlying performance across all three of its businesses and lifted its full-year dividend payment by 17% to 96p per share.

Back in May, it announced a one-off charge of £98.3m related to two large legacy contracts. It said on Wednesday that there has been "no material movement in this position" and it has taken a proactive approach towards managing the contracts through to completion, with "significant involvement" of the executive team.

The group said it has made good progress in resolving legacy projects during the period and no further contracts have been added to that list.

"While we will continue to monitor market conditions, particularly in light of the current political and macro-economic uncertainty in the UK, we consider that the outlook remains positive for all three of our businesses and we are excited about the opportunities our new strategy to 2021 identifies.

"Continued strong demand in housebuilding, stable construction markets, a group total order book of £5.3 billion, and our strengthened balance sheet give the board continued confidence in the group's prospects for the forthcoming year."