KINGSPAN SEES STABILITY, BUT NO IMPROVEMENT YET - Revenue at Kingspan, which makes products for the construction industry, fell by 35% to €552m in the first half of its financial year.
The company, which owns timber frame maker Century Homes, said its earnings per share fell by 70%, and its operating profit fell by 66% to €30m, in comparison with the same period a year earlier.
The company's chief executive Gene Murtagh said the figures were not unexpected, but the company was not unhappy to have made a profit in the six months.
On the Irish business, he said there was particular weakness in the non-residential sector. He said Kingspan had seen a significant upturn in the refurbishment side of the business, which indicated that although people were not building new buildings in Ireland, they were upgrading them.
Mr Murtagh said cost-cutting at the company was 'largely complete'. He said a recession such as this would create weaknesses for other businesses, which may become available to Kingspan.
Mr Murtagh said 'improvement' in the market was not a word Kingspan would use at the moment, and stability was the main aim for now. He said he expected the UK residential market to be the first to bounce back, but it would be a number of years before there would be any uplift in the Irish residential market.
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