Ashtead in a hole but gives pledge on divis

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Ashtead today saw profits in the fourth quarter to the end of April wiped out from £22 million last year to a £200,000 loss this time in the teeth of a deepening recession - which it said is only going to get worse.

"We hire out plant to the schools and healthcare sectors and rail and roads both here and the US and so we are a mirror to the market," said chief executive Geoff Drabble.

"We have not seen the bottom point though we will see it sometime during our 2009-10 financial year. We don't see ourselves coming out of the cycle until autumn 2010 in the UK, perhaps earlier, mid-2010 in the US.

"But we are remarkably well-positioned for cyclical company compared to some who have had to go cap in hand to their banks and hand over hard-earned money to pay for increased borrowing charges or had to launch heavily discounted rights issues or had to scrap the dividend."

Full-year Ashtead profits dived 22% to £87 million but cashflows saw net debt reduced £232 million to £1.03 billion. The dividend is up 3% to 2.575p.

The shares today rose to 54p, up 3⁄4p from a low of 291⁄4p in December when the economic outlook was at its worst, and prospects for the construction industry at their bleakest.