Alfred McAlpine on track for 5% margin

Alfred McAlpine's ability to sustain a 5% margin in its Capital Projects division - which contains the former civil engineering and building businesses - is on track yet again.
The group's latest interim results (six months to 30 June) show a dip in margin to around 4%, but that blip will soon be ironed out, according to managing director of Capital Projects Matt Swan.
"In the full year, turnover in Capital Projects should be £300m to £340m and the business will make its 5% margin," he said.
Swan put the on-going top-of-the-class performance down to the division's way of working, with 80% of Capital Projects' forward orderbook falling into one of three categories: target-cost; framework; or ECI (early contractor involvement).
Capital Projects' annual turnover of £340m divides between civil engineering (two-thirds) and building (one third).
The interim results show group turnover at £430m (£420m), while pre-tax profit eased backwards to £9.5m (£12m). McAlpine's summary of its results glosses over the fact that there was a "one-off non-trading cost" of £1m, related to the battle with Sir Robert for rights to the McAlpine name.
The biggest cause of the downturn in profitability came from McAlpine's Infrastructure Services operation, where profit almost halved to £2.8m (£5.1m).