Abbey, the house-building group, is looking for further growth following the rise in pre-tax profit from £19.3 million (€24.5 million) to £20.9 million (€26.6 million) in the year ended April 30th 1999.

While house completions in the first half will be adversely affected by the recent scaffolders' dispute, the British market has shown a strong improvement which should lead to growth this year, said executive chairman, Mr Charles Gallagher. Abbey, he added, should sell about 800 houses this year compared with 738 last year.

The latest results are broadly in line with brokers' predictions. Sales rose by just 1.3 per cent, from £90.6 million to £91.8 million. It was hit on two fronts. First, the number of houses completed in Britain fell from 511 to 428 because of the sluggish British market. Second, the scaffolders' dispute hit the Irish sales. Although the number of houses completed in Ireland rose from 284 to 310, the dispute reduced the number by 30, with an estimated loss of some £0.5 million in profits. Mr Gallagher, however, noted that these were postponed sales, and would come through this year.

Around 300 houses are budgeted to be sold in Ireland this year. Although this is somewhat lower than the numbers last year, they will be higher value. Asked about the resignation of Mr David D'Alton, the director in charge of the Irish operations, who left to establish a property development company, Mr Gallagher said he could not comment. The investigation into whether there was any possible conflict of interest is continuing, he said.

Business in Britain started to improve quickly towards the end of the year. "This improvement was too late to boost volumes to previously planned levels, however, it has provided a strong platform for the first half's trading", said Mr Gallagher. The first quarter of this year was the "best for a decade", he added.

M&J Engineers, its British plant-hire company, reported an operating profit of £1.25 million on sales of £16.3 million last year. However, it has experienced deteriorated trading conditions since January. The group remains in a strong financial position with cash of some £20 million. Net assets per share improved from 197 pence to 236 pence. Diluted earnings per share rose from 33.88 pence to 38.29 pence. A final dividend of 6.5 pence per share has been declared, making a total of 10 pence, an increase of 11.1 per cent over the previous year.