Contractor Galliford Try (GFRD) said full-year profit before one-off charges will be at the top end of analysts’ expectations, which range from £16.4m to £18m.
The company expects to incur almost £10mn of one-off charges for the year to 30 June. Over £6mn of this relates to the buyout of collapsed contractor nmcn’s water business from administrators in October last year, while £3.4mn has been spent introducing cloud-based computer systems.
The company, which bought another business serving the water industry, MCS Control Systems, for £1 this week, said it has about 90 per cent of work for its current financial year already secured, with £3.4bn of orders in the bag.
Galliford Try's shares have traded resiliently so far this year, falling in value by 9 per cent compared with a wider FTSE 250 decline of 19 per cent.
Broker Liberum increased its earnings per share forecast by 9 per cent to 14.1p, indicating a trailing p/e ratio of 11.5x. Although Galliford Try says it has handled inflationary and supply chain pressures well so far, its thin margins (Liberum forecasts an EBIT margin of 1.1 per cent) leave little room for error. Hold.
