Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure adds to parent company results

Morgan Sindall Construction, which has its national headquarters in Rugby, along with regional offices and sites across the UK, has contributed to half year results released today (5 August 2020) by parent company Morgan Sindall Group plc, the construction and regeneration group.

Morgan Sindall Group plc delivered results for the half year to 30 June 2020 which were unsurprisingly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with adjusted profit before tax down 57% to £15.7m and revenue down 4% to £1,363m. Importantly, however, the Group’s balance sheet remains strong, with average daily net cash in the period increasing to £153m and period end net cash of £146m. With its secured workload up 5% to £8.0bn, the Group is confident of future success and growth.

Pat Boyle, managing director for Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “The first half of 2020 has been a challenging period for everyone, but our teams have worked incredibly hard alongside our supply chain partners to keep our sites safe, so we could continue to deliver for our customers. I am proud of how we have collectively responded to the challenges, with all of our projects following the latest government guidance on safe working practices and social distancing.
I am also proud that our commitment to the communities in which we work has not diminished during this difficult period. Engagement schemes such as work experience have successfully moved online, we have supported the NHS and Emergency Services to build and repurpose facilities to support their COVID-19 response, and our team in the East of England helped to raise over £26,000 for NHS workers to say thank you for all their hard work.”

In Morgan Sindall Construction, at the ‘peak’ impact of the lockdown measures, c31% of our construction sites were closed completely (c15% by value), with the remainder impacted by significant productivity constraints.

The operational impact on our construction projects was broadly determined by the stage of construction, with a relatively low impact on projects at an earlier stage of construction (groundwork, piling, demolition etc), while those most impacted were projects at the final stages of construction.

As at 30 June, 100% of our Morgan Sindall Construction sites were open and active, operating at an estimated average 90% of productivity compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. This improved to c95% of pre-COVID-19 productivity levels by the end of July.

Morgan Sindall Construction’s order book increased by 8% to £554m. Of the total, £322m (58%) is secured for the second half of the year, £212m (38%) for 2021 and the remainder (4%) for 2022 and beyond.

During the first half of 2020 Morgan Sindall Construction won several new projects including a £46m residential development for Urban Regeneration (through its joint venture) as part of the wider New Bailey development in Manchester, two schools for the City of Edinburgh totalling £24m, a £37m school for Urban and Civic in Rugby and a £46m Engineering Block for Salford University. Morgan Sindall Construction was also appointed onto Lot 1 (£10m-£30m) and Lot 2 (£30m+) of the £1.5bn YORbuild framework as well as re-securing a place on the £0.5bn Scottish Hub South West Framework.