Galliford Try plc, the housebuilding and construction group, has issued a confident interim management statement this morning for the period 1 January 2010 to 10 May 2010.

On the construction side, the company said it was continuing to perform to expectations in challenging markets, with a number of successful renewals of five year water frameworks agreements with key water clients.

Last month Galliford Try was selected to carry out up to £500 million of work for Thames Water in joint ventures for both their north and south London regions. The company also confirmed selection for two streams of Yorkshire Water's AMP5 framework, anticipated to be worth £150 million over the period.

Galliford said its strengths in long term framework contracting and repeat client relationships were proving their worth and enabling it to maintain the size and quality of its order book with opportunities in both the infrastructure and building markets continuing to come forward. Galliford’s construction order book currently stands at £1.8 billion– up from £1.7 billion in 2009.

The order book is split between 35% for the regulated utility sector, 50% for the public sector and 15% in private commercial work. Galliford said its spread of work, together with rigorous project selection and tight management of risk profile, would enable the business to maintain its planned revenues during more difficult trading conditions and place it in a good position to grow again when markets recover.

Greg Fitzgerald, Chief Executive, commented:

"We have seen a positive start to 2010 in Housebuilding and recent contract awards in Construction have further underpinned the resilience of our business in challenging markets.  Although we remain in a period of economic uncertainty, the Group's finances are robust and we remain confident that we are on track to deliver our transformational housebuilding expansion plan."