Insider Media Limited

Forward orders at construction company Morgan Sindall are down on its half-year results, the company said this morning.

Parent company Morgan Sindall Group said the Warwickshire-based division's forward order book fell short of the first half of the year, but added there were "significant opportunities" at preferred bidder stage.

These include a £500m overhead line partnership for National Grid in joint venture with Vinci Energies.

The parent company said it has grown its pipeline of regeneration work from £1.8bn to £2.2bn in the last six months.

In an interim management statement released this morning, the construction giant said it remained "on track" to meet its expectations for the current year. The update covered the period from 1 July 2011 to 8 November.

Alongside a growing regeneration order book, the company's affordable housing division reported a "robust" performance. It added that following the recent £560m allocation of funds to Registered Social Landlords, it expects a number of new-build social housing opportunities "to emerge in the coming months".

Morgan Sindall said a refocus on regeneration schemes had helped hike up revenues.

Of its urban regeneration division, the company said it had more than twice the amount of construction on-site than a year ago. Several schemes are also in planning stages.

"Overall we continue to pursue attractive opportunities across all the group's market sectors," read a statement.

"We remain in a robust position with a £3.3bn forward order book and a number of major contract opportunities currently at preferred bidder, a growing regeneration pipeline of £2.2bn and £0.9bn of regeneration schemes at preferred developer stage."