J Murphy reports 12.5% margin from £60m profit

J Murphy has made a remarkable margin of 12.5% as pre-tax profit doubled to £60m last year.

The latest figures cover the 12 months to 31 December 2007.

Turnover was higher at £480m.

In the previous year Murphy made a margin of 8.5% as profits of £31m were achieved on the back on a turnover of £360m.

Murphy lists its specialist operations as:

• civils
• mechanical engineering
• pipelines
• tunnelling
• telecommunications
• commercial and residential building
• property development.

There are further operations active in piling, drilling, stabilisation and demolition and pipeline testing.

The latest profit is rather large as it included the settlement of claims relating to contracts completed in past years.

The resulting profit was boosted still higher as Murphy benefited from the commencement of residential property sales.

The group’s net cash inflow from operating activities ran to £54m, well up on the previous figure of £27m.

As a result the net funds at the end of the period had jumped to £75m.

The highest-paid director was chairman John Murphy who received £850,000, an increase of £100,000 over the previous year.

The group has 2,600 employees and the total bill for wages and salaries ran to £112m with an additional £2.3m spend on pension costs, that figure dividing between:

• £680,000 for the defined contribution scheme
• £1.6m for the defined benefit scheme

The defined benefit scheme has a surplus of £600,000 as the value of the assets lifted to £53m.

A year earlier, there was a £1.2m deficit in the scheme.

Two years ago the gap stood at £11.4m when the liabilities of £48m far outstripped the assets of £37m.