The group鈥檚 UK operating company had revenues of 拢1,622.4m for the year to 31 March 2013 (2012: 拢1,746.3m).聽 Pre-tax profit reached 拢27.4m (2012: 拢28.6m), with profit margin diminishing from 1.8% to 1.7%.
Worldwide, however, the privately-owned construction group more than doubled its global pre-tax profits last year to 拢57m, up from 拢23.4m the previous year, thanks largely to improvements in Australia.
Laing O'Rourke's global managed revenue, as reported by its offshore intermediate holding company in Cyprus, was up 2% to 拢4.4 billion (2012: 拢4.3bn).
Pre-exceptional EBIT for Europe was 拢49.0m and for Australia it was 拢29.4m.
Group chief executive Anna Stewart expects little improvement in the UK market until at least after the next general election. She said in the 2013 annual report: 鈥淭he construction sector in the UK continues to decline in terms of market volume and, although there has been a shift from building to infrastructure, spend overall is down. We do not expect this trend to change materially and foresee few signs of significant stimulus prior to the 2015 general election.鈥�
Prospects in Australia are rather better: 鈥淲e expect Australia to be a rich market of opportunity for the group over the next few years,鈥� she said.
Executive chairman and owner Ray O鈥橰ourke was satisfied with the company鈥檚 global performance. He said: 鈥淟aing O鈥橰ourke has delivered another creditable performance, generating strong cash flows, earnings and forward orders. We also made good progress against our strategic mission to become an enduring engineering enterprise that delivers Excellence Plus performance for our clients, and on the key actions that we are taking to deliver strong, stable and sustainable revenues over time.鈥�
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
