Abbey posts slight rise in profit

House builder Abbey has posted a pretax profit of €22

House builder Abbey has posted a pretax profit of €22.58 million for the six months to the end of December, up slightly on last year's figure of €22.32 million.

Abbey said group turnover fell from €96.99 million to €96.62 million, and it declared an interim dividend of 12 cents per share.

Abbey said the Irish housing market has continued to be firm, with prices considerably higher than a year ago.

It added that a number of new projects are now under construction and will form a good platform for 2007.