(Alliance News) - TClarke PLC on Thursday said it expects 2023 profit to fall, as a result of the "turbulent prevailing construction sector environment."
Shares in the London-headquartered engineering services company were down 8.0% to 117.50 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
Weighing in on the company's share price was the "turbulent prevailing construction sector environment", which is impacting a number of market participants.
As a result, TClarke has made a number of strategic decisions to "preserve the business's strong market and financial position." These decisions have included early contract agreements, as well as the changing of some supply chain partners mid contract to protect project completion dates.
It is expected that the projects will be delivered to their project programmes and, as a result of the actions taken in the second half, the company's 2023 operating profit is now expected to be in the range of GBP9 million to GBP10 million. In 2022, TClarke reported an operating profit of GBP11.5 million.
In better news, TClarke said it remains "firmly on track" to achieve its three-year growth plan target of GBP500 million revenue in 2023 and expects its year end net cash position to surpass GBP15 million, an increase of GBP6 million over current market expectations.
It added that its revenue and profit expectations for 2024 and 2025 remain unchanged.
Further, TClarke said its forward order book stood at more GBP1.1 billion at October 31. The company saw growth in its order book across the engineering, technology, infrastructure and FM sectors, but saw a drop in the residential sector.
Chief Executive Mark Lawrence said: "We have now achieved a significant milestone with our secured order book surpassing GBP1 billion for the first time. This substantial growth positions us well for future success and provides the board with continued confidence in our ability to deliver a strong performance into 2024 and 2025".
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News senior reporter
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