Laing O'Rourke will demonstrate the strength of the UK construction market today as the privately-held group unveils a 30 per cent rise in pre-tax profits and confirms it expects similar levels of growth to continue in 2008.

Revenues in the year to the end of March rose by a third to £3.5bn and the group said it was targeting gross margins of 8 per cent. Net margins were 1.78 per cent, which analysts said were broadly in line with the rest of the construction industry.