Profits drop but Morgan in robust mood

CONSTRUCTION group Morgan Sindall has posted a 28 per cent fall in full-year pre-tax profit, which it described as a "robust" performance in tough conditions.

The London-based firm said the markets in 2010 would be similar to

those in 2009 but added it "remained confident" of good progress this year.

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Morgan Sindall said it was seeing some signs of recovery in demand from the financial services sector.

"The strength of our order book and projects progressed to preferred bidder stage, should help to offset some of the effect of the expected further weakening of public sector spending," Morgan Sindall said in a statement.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, the company said its pre-tax profit fell to 44.7m from 62.3m the previous year.

Revenue fell 13 per cent to 2.21bn.

Morgan Sindall includes construction company Morgan Ashurst, which has offices in Green Lane, Garforth, near Leeds.

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Morgan Ashurst's Leeds office is the lead construction partner to deliver Hull City Council's 400m Building Schools for the Future scheme.

The Leeds office has also secured a 12m scheme to build two primary health centres in Doncaster for Doncaster Community Solutions, which is a public private partnership.

Chris Brown, Morgan Ashurst area director for Leeds, said:"Despite a tough year for the construction sector in general, Morgan Ashurst has

performed well and we're winning work. Key to our strategy has been a commitment to create local jobs for local people in the communities where we work.

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"Although we expect the market to remain competitive this year, there are good project opportunities out there.

"It's up to us to make the most of them by outperforming our

competitors and by being the best at what we do."

In Leeds, property development company Muse, which is also part of Morgan Sindall, is working alongside Aire Valley Regeneration, Lord Halifax Estate and Yorkshire Forward to deliver the 100m Logic Leeds regeneration scheme, which involves the transformation of a 100-acre site next to the East Leeds Link Road to create 1.2m sq ft of business space.