Henry Boot reports big leap in profits

Henry Boot chairman Jamie Boot sees no fall out from Brexit

The Sheffield-based group said pre-tax profit leapt 49 per cent to £21m in the six months to June 30 thanks to earlier than anticipated land sales and good progress on its commercial property developments.

Chairman Jamie Boot said: “The result of the EU referendum in June gave rise to widespread cautious predictions regarding future activity levels within the UK focused property and construction sectors.

"However, two months after the vote, the board’s expectations detailed in the company’s trading update on June 8 remain unchanged.

“Henry Boot is inextricably connected to the UK property market, whether that be housebuilding, commercial development, construction or plant hire. Two months after the EU referendum, it is probably a little early to judge how the UK property market will react over the longer term. However, our experience is that the trading activity and any deals we had in progress are proceeding as envisaged and the future pipeline is coming to fruition as we would have expected."

The group said its commercial development pipeline should ensure the firm is cash generative over the next two years.

"Should the post referendum world prove to be more turbulent than we are experiencing at the moment, these internally generated funds should provide the resources to acquire competitively priced opportunities for the next cyclical growth phase,” said Mr Boot.

The group said it was pleased to see that the larger commercial development schemes it has been preparing for some time are now finally on site.

Revenue for the period jumped 35 per cent to £107m as a result of higher land sales and increased property development activity, which was slightly offset by delayed construction turnover