Organic growth helps Grafton build solid interim profits
Grafton Group Ut (CDI)
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17:15 25/04/24
Interim pre-tax profits at international building materials distributor Grafton rose 18% to £74.1m driven by organic growth across its core businesses.
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Revenues were up 9% £1.3bn. The dividend was lifted 11% to 5.25p a share.
The company warned that recent softer trends in the UK economy are likely to be sustained over the remainder of the year.
The strength of UK housing starts should support house building activity while the residential repair, maintenance and improvements (RMI) market was expected to be broadly flat with continuing competitive pricing conditions, it added.
“Expansion of the Selco branch network reflects our confidence in the medium term outlook for the UK economy,” Grafton said.
“The outlook for the Irish economy is positive with the pace of growth projected to remain strong and to provide a favourable trading environment,” it added, noting that Ireland was still in the early stages of a recovery that was expected to gather pace in response to strong underlying demand.
“Recent strong growth in the Netherlands economy is forecast to continue with the Dutch merchanting business expected to benefit. While modest growth is forecast for the Belgian economy, our focus remains on self-help initiatives to restore profitability,” Grafton said.