A-Plant sets out case for pick-up in construction

Plant hire company Ashtead offered tentative signs of a pick-up in activity among UK building firms yesterday as it revealed a jump in quarterly revenues.

Ashtead's A-Plant division, which is the UK's third-largest equipment rental company, posted a 6 per cent rise in rental revenues in its final quarter to 30 April, compared to 1 per cent for the year as a whole. This positive trend continued into its new financial year with rental revenues up 11 per cent in May.

But the company said it remained cautious about the outlook for construction markets in the near future, particularly the UK, and said the upturn may also be due to builders opting to rent rather than buy equipment.

The group, which operates as Sunbelt in the United States, said operating profits rose 41 per cent to 98.8 million in the year, on revenues up 11 per cent to 948.5m.

A-Plant, which trades from 106 locations in the UK, saw volumes of equipment on hire improve 2 per cent in the year.

But the real driver of growth was Sunbelt - the second-largest equipment rental business in the US - which put in a "pleasing" performance with the volume of equipment on hire up 5 per cent.

Pre-tax profits fell 67 per cent to 1.7m following an exceptional charge of 22m mainly relating to financing costs.