THE chief executive of Miller Group believes the business will not be reporting red figures for a long time after it returned to the black with a half-year profit.
Keith Miller's prediction came as the Edinburgh company booked a 7% rise in revenue from £244.9 million to £262.5m in the six months to June 30 while a £52.9m loss was turned around into a pre-tax profit of £400,000.
When asked whether the housebuilder and construction firm was on course to stay profitable across the full year, Mr Miller said: "We don't make forecasts, but I think you can read between the lines and say we are unlikely to be showing red figures again for a long time."
Miller Group has benefited from a major financial restructuring which saw £215.6m of debt converted to shares and a further £48.9m waived.
The deal, which also included a £160m equity injection, saw the Miller family giving a major stake to United States investment company GSO Capital Partners while lenders Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and National Australia Bank all agreed to provide support. Overall net debt reduced from more than £700m at the end of 2011 to £217m at the end of June this year.
Mr Miller said: "We are happy with the progress we have made. It has been a good half and it is nice to see black figures again.
"We are on the front foot, there is a lot still to do in the second half and we are on track to show further progress.
"We have a very strong balance sheet with net assets of £228m, which gives us a good platform from which to expand.
"So we are in a very robust financial position and will be capitalising on that by pursuing our growth strategy."
In the housing division, turn-over increased slightly from £124.3m to £124.8m with house completions flat at 820 although average selling prices increased from £154,000 to £170,000.
That meant the previous year's £35.2m loss became a pre-tax profit of £4.4m.
Mr Miller said: "The housing market has been a little bit flat during the summer and a little bit softer due to Olympics and Jubilee holiday.
"But we are seeing a good uptick since the holidays and kids returning back to school so hope to see pull through in the autumn market."
Construction was the only division to report a loss, at £800,000 opposed to a profit of £1.4m in the first half of 2011.
Turnover declined from £115.6m to £113.1m, although a larger spend on business development helped to bring in more than £320m of orders to bring the order book to £805m.
Mr Miller said: "We have secured quite a few tens of millions since the half-year. Going into the second half of this year we expect an increase in turnover and will be very well set up for next year."
The commercial property arm reported a near doubling of turnover from £16.9m to £31.4m with profits up 40% from £4.3m to £6m after the sale of some assets.
The mining operation had a decline in income from £15.2m to £14.8m but profits grew from £3.6m to £4.2m and it is on course to produce more than 900,000 tonnes of coal this year.
Miller Group spent £10m on buying land for commercial development and housing in the first six months of the year and intends to spend a further £55m before the end of 2012.
Mr Miller was cautious on the impact of the eurozone problems on the UK, but added: "We have reasonable visibility over our year-end numbers now and we will get to where we expect to get to.
"Confidence drives most of our markets from the consumer and industrial point of view.
"It is very much a case of making sure we capitalise on any increased confidence."
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