ISG made a pre-tax profit of £27.4m in 2018 on revenue of £2.2bn. In 2017 it made £9.1m on £1.7bn revenue.
Underlying pre-tax profit, excluding amortisation and other one-off costs, was £38.5m (2017: £28.2m).
The UK’s biggest office and shop fit-out contractor had £77.7m net cash in the bank at year end, up from £63.9m at the start of the year, and an average net cash balance during the year of £105.7m (2017: £60.2m). The order book grew during the year from £1.3bn to £1.4bn.
ISG was taken over by Cathexis, a US-owned investment fund, for £85m in February 2016 and de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.
The UK Construction division generated £520m of revenue (2017: £480m) and made an underlying pre-tax profit of £5.7m (2017: £6.8m). It suffered a little from project starts being delayed.
The Engineering Services business generated £469m revenue (2017: 293m) and underlying pre-tax profit of £11.7m (2017: £7.0m).
The firm’s UK Fit-Out business posted a 54% increase in revenue to £609m (2017: £396m) and made underlying pre-tax profit of £10.5m (2017: £6.5m).
The overall scale of projects has also increased significantly, with ISG securing and working on three projects valued at more than £200m and project at £300m+ during 2018.
Chief executive Paul Cossell said: “Instead of waiting for new incumbents to disrupt our industry, ISG has used its 30 years’ experience as a market leader to tackle the productivity and cyclical financial issues that have plagued our industry for too long.
“Traditional operating practices and central command structures do not work in our dynamic society or for agile global customers, so we have embraced change, empower our people to be creative and encourage radical thinking, with technology and innovation at our core.
“What’s clear is that ripping up the old rule book and learning from our tech-led customers has proved transformational for our business. Our people are already generating the ideas and innovation that are proving instrumental in moving our industry forward.
“From the launch of a new Level 3 qualification, to developing a standard component design for classrooms, or our very first filed patent for in-house developed technology, it is the quality of our people and the supportive structure around them that sets our business apart.”
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