London-based property company Howard Holdings has announced operating profits of £514,000 sterling (€835,000) for the six months ending October 31st, 1999, up from £414,000 a year earlier.

However, pre-tax profits fell to £38,000 from £346,000 a year earlier as the company faced a big increase in its interest bill on borrowings to buy sites and increase its work in progress.

The company said the results were in line with expectations. Activity levels had been very high during the period which should be reflected in the full-year figures. Howard said that it completed two major car parking schemes, one at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital and the other at Cork's City Hall, during the six-month period. A £20 million sterling development in London, Maidstone Buildings, has also been substantially completed and all of the commercial and residential units have been sold or are under offer.

"Both the Irish and UK projects are forecast to contribute substantially to the group's full-year performance," Howard's chairman Mr Frank Gormley said. He was confident of a favourable outcome for the current financial year and said trading in the second half to date had been "excellent".

Asset revaluations will also be carried out during the second half and this should be reflected in the company's end-year figures.

The company has a number of other projects in the pipeline including new residential and commercial schemes which are currently under way in Kingston, Teddington and Croydon in Britain. In the Republic, it is working on a multi-storey car park in Waterford and residential schemes in Watergrasshill and Whitegate in Cork, as well as re-development work at Cork Airport and Havisham Hotels.

Howard is listed in London but between 40 and 45 per cent of the company is owned by Mr Gormley, chief executive Mr Greg Coughlan and Mr Brendan Murtagh, one of the founding directors of Kingspan. The three investors reversed into the loss-making family-owned group in early 1998 and have since concentrated on turning it around.