London-based property company Howard Holdings has announced a pre-tax profit of £882,000 sterling (€1.32 million) and said it is continuing to prepare for a dual listing on the Irish Stock Exchange.

"We would hope to have everything in place by the end of September," said chairman Mr Frank Gormley following the release of the company's annual results yesterday.

Howard returned to profit in the year ended April 30th, 1999, after posting a loss of £683,000 the previous year before a group of Irish investors reversed into the company.

Mr Gormley, chief executive Mr Greg Coughlan and Mr Brendan Murtagh, one of the founding directors of Kingspan, were the investors who bought into the family-controlled group in early 1998. Since then new management has been put in place, the company has set up operations in Ireland and disposed of its small widely-spread residential investment portfolio. The surplus on the disposal of investment properties contributed £412,000 to profits.

Mr Gormley described the last financial year as one of "unprecedented change" for the group. Its net asset value increased by more than 25 per cent to £10.3 million while its investment portfolio, at £14 million sterling, is producing a yield of close to 10 per cent. However he said that due to the long timescale involved in property development, much of what has been achieved in the past year is not reflected in the current year's results but will have a major impact on the next two years.

Howard had developments in progress worth more than £30 million in total at year-end. These included a 600-space multi-storey car park at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin which opened on June 1st and a 385-space car park at City Hall in Cork which is due to open in September.

The company also recently completed the purchase of the Cork Airport Hotel and is planning a hotel in the centre of Croydon, near London.