Galliford Try Holdings PLC (LSE:GFRD) said it will meet its sustainable growth targets ahead of plan as it provided an optimistic assessment of prospects alongside a strong first-half financial and operational showing.
The construction group exited the period sitting on a £3.7 billion order book (up £200 million on the same time last year), adding that has excellent visibility over future business with 98% and 83% of this year's and next's revenues secured.
For the six months ended December 31, Galliford Try reported turnover of £819 million, up 21%, and pretax profits of £15.5 million, up a third on the year earlier. It is raising the dividend in line with earnings to 4p a share.
"Our strong and high-quality order book, predominantly in long-term frameworks, provides visibility and security of future workloads and continued growth prospects well beyond the current financial year," said CEO Bill Hocking.
Galliford Try's sustainable growth strategy includes a focus on divisional operating margins, which it wants to grow to 3%. In the first half, they were 2.5%, up from 2.3% at the same point last year.
It also striving to deliver an annualised £1.6 billion in revenues, which, at the current run rate, it looks on track to comfortably achieve.
Maintaining a strong balance sheet is also key to the group's aims, and it appears to be doing this with average month-end cash standing at £150 million.
"Our performance, over the last three years, together with our excellent people and our strong balance sheet, gives us confidence to announce our updated strategy to 2030 at a capital markets event on May 23," said Hocking.