Galliford Try says it has orders for £4.9bn worth of new homes and projects © Bloomberg
Galliford Try: An apology (with additional apologies to Private Eye).
In the past few months, in common with other media, we may have given the impression that construction group Galliford Try was in some way disadvantaged by not being a “pure play” housebuilder — finding itself disregarded as a credible bidder or direct competitor for Bovis, owing to its incompatible infrastructure projects and messy regeneration partnerships.
We further may have led readers to believe that £98m of charges relating to mispriced legacy contracts — including its huge Firth of Forth project — only demonstrated the folly of trying to build three bedroom houses as well as 3km road bridges. Quotes suggesting that the Bovis deal “would be potentially neater . . . with Redrow because it’s a pure housebuilder” may have reinforced this view.
We now realise, in light of a trading update indicating record profits before exceptionals and no further contract charges, that nothing could be further from the truth.
We would like to make clear for the record that combining housebuilder Linden Homes with fast growing regeneration partnerships and smaller construction projects has provided a degree of diversification that kept Galliford in the black in 2009-10 — and does so again today.
We hope that headlines such as ‘Galliford rallies on bright outlook for profits’ clear up any misunderstanding. We apologise for any confusion caused.
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Today’s other Lombard notes: