Murphy family get £8 million dividend after construction firm returns to profit

The secretive multi-millionaire Murphy family have paid themselves dividends of more than £8 million after their construction and civil engineering empire returned to profit last year, Companies House accounts show.

J Murphy & Son, headquartered in north London, has worked on a host of major projects including Crossrail and the 2012 Olympic Park and is bidding for work on the HS2 rail link.

Accounts showed the Murphy Group turning around a £9.7 million pre-tax loss in 2014 to a £13.8 million profit last year. After no dividends were paid in 2014, there was an interim payout of £5.1 million with a £3 million final divi paid after the year end.

The firm was set up in 1951 by John Murphy, who emigrated from rural Ireland to London in the Thirties and died aged 95 in 2009.

His family, including second wife Kathy and son Bernard, are worth an estimated £325 million. His daughter Caroline quit as heir apparent and deputy chairman in 2014 after investors rejected her plans to turn the firm into a workers’ co-operative.