Thriving McAlpine swells order book

ALFRED McAlpine's chairman and chief executive Oliver Whitehead has shrugged off the gloom in global financial markets and declared the current environment for his company the best he could remember for years.

'I don't want to be smug, but market opportunities are pretty damn good,' said Whitehead, who retires as chief executive in 12 months' time. 'I can't recall a time when the opportunities were as good as they are today.'

He said the vast majority of the business was hitting target margins of between 5% and 6%. Following the acquisition of Stiell, McAlpine's forward order book had swollen to £2.1bn at the end of its first half. It was helped by winning a £300m railway bridges and embankment contract.

Whitehead said that tougher accounting rules for the costs associated with bidding for Private Finance Initiative projects would have little impact on McAlpine, which has always been conservative with the figures.

Pre-tax profits of £12m for the six months to 30 June were up 26%, but losses in joint ventures, goodwill write backs and interest payments knocked the bottom line to £9.3m, up a more-modest 7% on the year. The interim dividend is held at 4.1p.

McAlpine's shares jumped 10 1/2p to 327p.