Football, jubilee dent Aggregate

THE World Cup, Jubilee celebrations and some poor weather has been bad news for those selling concrete and rocks, building products supplier Aggregate Industries has revealed.

It managed an 18% rise in interim pre-tax profits to £41.4m, but this was boosted by a £2.8m fall in the interest bill, which deflected from a rise in operating profit of just 6%.

Chief executive Peter Tom said UK trading in June had been damaged by the various celebrations, which dented the strong performance recorded in the first five months.

But he said conditions were improving in the UK. 'At last we are seeing some infrastructure spending and we are expecting a strong second half,' he added.

Aggregates' US operations were held back by the slump in commercial building activity although this was partly offset by continued infrastructure spending.

'We will see a weakening in road mix volumes but some other areas will be improving so it should be a flat result there for the year.'

Interest cover is running at 5 1/2 times and the dividend is 5% higher at 1.03p.