Willmott Dixon has announced steady results for the full year to December with its turnover, net balance sheet and cash reserves all slightly improved on 2012.
The privately-owned contracting, residential development and property support company reported £1.02bn turnover for 2013, compared to £1.03bn in 2012. Its net balance sheet was £147.7 m, compared to £147.3 m in 2012.
However, the group’s pre-tax profits fell by 20% to £16.2m, compared to £20.1m in 2012, due to some projects delivering lower profits than expected.
But the company was optimistic about the near future with a secured forward order book of £2.05bn, as at March 2014, and 91% of the group’s budgeted work secured for 2014.
Rick Willmott, group CEO, said: “Our work volumes and turnover continue to hold up well, while our reduced pre-tax profit reflects a small number of projects now completed that did not deliver the margins we had expected.”
Assessing prospects for the market in general, he said: “We are seeing more opportunities across our industry owing to greater economic confidence and a stronger housing market and we have focused our skill-sets and resources accordingly. Our frameworks and long-term contracts continue to give us a robust pipeline of construction and support services work while our development business Regen, delivering both homes for sale and private rent, really ‘came of age’ in 2013 with a significant volume of development that will increase in 2014 and beyond.”
Invesco is to forward-fund 118 PRS flats at the Gatefold Building in Hayes, west London, to be developed and managed by Willmott Dixon brand be:here
But Willmott also warned that materials and trade prices and capacity issues posed considerable challenges going forward: “I said in a trade publication in 2011 that our industry was set for a prolonged recession and this has been borne out. We’re coming out the other end now and the pent-up demand we are seeing for capital projects means the key challenges we face alongside maintaining a pipeline of work is a growing pressure on material and trade prices, staff recruitment and supply chain capacity.”
The company also announced this week that investment management group Invesco had selected Willmott Dixon’s be:here brand for its first investment in the UK’s private rented sector, on behalf of a local authority pension fund.
"We are seeing more opportunities across our industry owing to greater economic confidence and a stronger housing market and we have focused our skill-sets and resources accordingly."
Rick Willmott, Willmott Dixon
Invesco is to forward-fund and then own the freehold of 118 PRS flats to be built at the Gatefold Building in Hayes, west London, with development and ongoing management in the hands of be:here. This is the second major institutional investment deal Willmott Dixon’s PRS be:here brand has pulled off, with M&G already backing a scheme in Poplar, east London.
Willmott said that be:here now aimed to unlock further institutional investment, and aims to build 5,000 PRS units in the next few years.
The company was also fairly positive about the ECO scheme, partly attributing an increased turnover at its support services division – of £121m compared to £110m in 2012 – to increased ECO incomes streams for its Energy Services Company. “While our Energy Services Company has been operating in a market that’s seen a reduction in ECO targets, we’re still making good progress,” said Willmott.
In its capital works division, turnover fell slightly, at £899m versus £904m. Key project wins last year included phase two of Birmingham City University’s £180m estate masterplan and a major non-residential Passivhaus project for the University of Leicester.
