Acquisitions pay off for Alfred McAlpine

Alfred McAlpine's acquisitive nature paid off last year as its purchases helped the group to improve turnover by 13% to £868.5m and pre-tax profit by 20% to £36.2m. However, goodwill amortisation of £5.6m pegged profit back to £30.6m.

Two-thirds of the group's turnover came from its support services activities. Business Services delivered a 67% rise in turnover to £210.6m and profit of £12.8m (£7.8m in 2002), driven by organic growth, full-year contributions from Stiell and Inframan (acquired in March and December 2002 respectively) and a seven-month contribution from AIMS (bought in June last year).

Capital Projects posted a drop in turnover from £363.8m to £329.9m. Profit was down from £20.6m to £16.5m. The business experienced a slower than anticipated start to several secured projects.

Infrastructure Services benefited from a full-year contribution from Eastern Contracting (acquired in September 2002), as turnover grew 19% to £304.3m. profit was up 18% to £13.7m.

£15m was spent on acquisitions and £9.6m on buying back shares.

Alfred McAlpine's accident frequency rate fell for the fifth consecutive year to 0.27. This represents an improvement of a third compared with 2002.