Carillion expects strong profit growth in 2011

Carillion, the support services firm, expects its underlying pre-tax profit and earnings per share for the year ended 31 December to increase strongly.

Revenues are set to be in line with those of the previous year, but operating margin is expected to see strong increases, leading to greater profitability.

Net debt it set to be below £100m, significantly lower than the firm's target of below £125m.

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In a statement the firm said: "In 2011, we remain firmly on track to deliver strong growth in underlying profit and earnings, in line with market expectations.

"We also continue to expect to make further progress in 2012 and we remain well positioned to achieve our target to deliver substantial growth in UK support services from 2012 onwards and the medium-term growth that we announced in 2010, namely to double our revenues in the Middle East and in Canada, in each case to around £1 billion over three to five years."

In support services, which accounts for around half of the group's underlying operating profit, the firm expects to see a rise in profit following the acquistion of Carillion Energy Services in April.

Investments in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects also continued to perform well the firm said, while strong full-year revenue growth is expected in Middle East contruction services, although operating margin is set to be lower than in 2010.

The firm is reducing its UK contruction revenue by around a third to around £1.2bn by 2013, but still expects the operating margin to improve significantly this year.

The share price rose by 1.14% to 309.9p by 08:22.

NR