Revenues at the Sisk construction group broke through the €1 billion barrier for the first time last year, as pretax profits rose to €37.41 million from €28.09 million at the State's biggest builder. Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent, reports.
Newly filed accounts for John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd show that members of the Sisk family, who own the group, reduced their dividend to €20.27 million last year from €39.29 million in 2003.
As the Clondalkin-based group continues to secure contracts for some of the most prominent building projects in the public and private sector, its revenues, excluding joint venture operations, rose to €1.025 billion in 2004 from €714.43 million.
The growth in sales reflects the continued boom in the construction industry, although Sisk's operating profit margin before exceptional pension provisions declined last year to 3.47 per cent from 4.12 per cent.
Staff costs rose to €118.3 million in 2004 from €91.9 million, as the number of Irish staff rose to 1,248 from 1,134 and the number of staff in Britain rose to 490 from 263.
Sisk paid corporation taxes of €6.25 million in 2004, up from €4.23 million in the previous year.
It made an ex-gratia pension provision of €1.48 million in respect of changes to the benefit structures of certain unnamed staff.
This followed similar provisions of €3.63 million in 2003.
The operating profit before these provisions rose to €35.63 million from €29.43 million. Revenues from the business in Ireland grew to €801.49 million in 2004 from €573.77 million, while British revenues rose by €90 million to €241.66 million.
In an effort to boost its presence in Britain, Sisk spent €2.93 million acquiring the Bristol-based builder Bideen Holdings in January last year.
"We've a very strong order book on both sides of the Irish Sea for 2005 and beyond. It's steady as she goes. We're looking forward to further growth," said Bernard O'Connell, executive chairman in charge of all construction activities.
However, the group took a €3.42 million charge when diluting to 7 per cent its share of an African venture which held 25 per cent of a Zimbabwe-based construction group with operations in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.
The loss on the disposal arose from the forgiving of inter-company balances, the write-off of other net assets and other costs.
Mr O'Connell said trading conditions in the African operation were "difficult given the political and economic situation" and said the group believed it was better to focus the efforts of its management on the Irish operation.
Recent and current projects include Dundrum Shopping Centre and the development of the AIB group headquarters in Ballsbridge. Sisk is building the Scotch Hall shopping centre development in Drogheda.
The group is also building a multimillion euro office and apartment development for Treasury Holdings at Spencer Dock, which includes a new headquarters for accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In addition, the group is a member of the consortium that won a €200 million public-private partnership contract under the National Development Plan to build the Fermoy bypass.
It is also a member of the joint venture that built the Monasterevan bypass.
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