LONDON (ShareCast) - Contract and support services group May Gurney upped its final dividend by 48% as profits soared last year and the group's order book remained above £1bn.

Pre-tax profit for the year to March rose to £17m from £15.2m on sales up 7.5% to £437m. Margins rose to 4% helped by the absence of mobilisation costs in its Highways business.

"Our revenues are strongly underpinned by essential services spend in the public sector and ring fenced spend in the regulated sector. We are not exposed to house building, commercial construction and are only exposed to a limited extent to large public sector capital projects. Consequently, despite the current economic slow down and the tightening of the public financial environment we are in a strong position to continue our planned progression," chief executive David Sterry said.

May Gurney also announced the acquisiton of waste recycling group ECT Recycling for £3.4m plus up to £6.4m of debt and the obligations for £5.5m of hire purchase liabilities. The acquired order book is approximately £175m, with available extensions worth up to an additional £350m.

May Gurney said its orders are now worth £824m and over £1bn including framework contracts.

The final dividend goes up 48% to 3.1p per share.

• News Channel