Laing O'Rourke reveals £173m cash inflow

Laing O’Rourke enjoyed a cash inflow running to £173m last year, and at the year-end the group had £480m of cash in the bank.

The inflow of cash helped O'Rourke to almost doubled its pre-tax profit - the latest figure of £81m being well ahead of last year’s figure of £46m.

The latest annual review, offering financial details for the 12 months to 31 March 2008, can be found on the group’s website. It runs to 59 pages.

The latest performance represents a profit margin of 2.3% which is usefully ahead of the figure of 1.5% in 2007.

A press release issued by O’Rourke two weeks ago, covering the highlights of the past 12 months, steered clear of all references to pre-tax profit.

O’Rourke’s turnover was higher at £3.6bn (figure in previous year: £3.0bn).

Turnover contributions were:

• £2.6bn - Europe
• £570m – Australia
• £420m – Middle East and Asia

Separate figures show that O’Rourke’s construction activities accounted for £3.3bn of the group’s turnover. Some of the £140m operating profit was eaten away by un-allocated central costs running to £56m.

The group has £306m of goodwill on its books.

Creditors were paid in an average of just 29 days, well ahead of the construction industry average.

While turnover rose, staff numbers eased slightly to 22,600 though the wage bill was higher at £696m.

The group’s average pay ran to £30,800.