UK's Galliford Try expects annual earnings to marginally beat market view (updated)
09/07/2025 07:45
Expects annual revenue, adjusted pretax profit to beat estimates First-half growth momentum continued into second half Shares rise 5% Adds shares in paragraph 1 and 7, background on UK infrastructure spending in 2-4, full-year performance in 5-6 July 9 (Reuters) - British construction company Galliford Try GFRD.L said on Wednesday it expects annual revenue and profit to top analyst estimates as it benefits from the government's focus on infrastructure development, sending its shares to a record high. Finance minister Rachel Reeves in June laid out a more than 2 trillion pounds ($2.7 trillion) investment plan to promote capital spending on housing, transport and cleaner energy projects. Galliford Try builds public infrastructure such as highways, water systems and prisons, and two of its main revenue drivers - the defence and judicial sectors - are particular areas of focus for the government. The company, which re-entered the affordable housing market in 2024, also stands to benefit from the government's drive to build thousands of new homes. Galliford Try said it saw robust growth in the first half of the year, driven by water treatment plants, sewage infrastructure, and highway construction, and that the momentum continued into the second half. Its order book stood at 4.1 billion pounds at the end of June, compared with 3.8 billion pounds a year ago. Its shares rose nearly 6% to a record high of 444 pence, the top performance on the FTSE small-cap .FTSC index. Analysts had expected revenue between 1.86 billion pounds and 1.89 billion pounds for the year ended June 30, with adjusted pretax profit between 40.1 million pounds and 41.6 million pounds, according to a company-compiled poll. ($1 = 0.7359 pounds) (Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru. Editing by Sonia Cheema and Mark Potter) ((RaechelThankam.Job@thomsonreuters.com;))