Taywood hits £160m profit

Taylor Woodrow, the international housing development company, has unveiled an interim pre-tax profit of more than £160m, with more than half of this total being generated by Taywood's North America Housing division.

The group's latest financial statement (six months to 30 June) shows turnover little changed at £1.5bn. In the same period last year, that workload generated a pre-tax profit of £170m.

In housing, the average selling price of £193,000 was down slightly from the previous figure of £195,000 as the proportion of social housing completions rose from 9% to 14% of the total.

The construction division pushed its external orderbook ahead to £1.1bn (£780m). Pre-tax profit was £2m lower at £5m.

[Contract Journal, 9 August 2006, p. 3]