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UPDATE 1-Housing woes hit Grafton H1 profits, sees better H2

Fri Jul 3, 2009 2:53am EDT

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* Weak UK,Irish housing market "severely" hits profitability

* Expects modestly profitable H2

* H1 turnover down 31 pct

DUBLIN, July 3 (Reuters) - Irish building supplies group Grafton (GRF_u.I) posted a 31 percent fall in first-half turnover on Friday and said the weakness of the UK and Irish housing markets has hit its profitability "severely".

Revenue for the six months to the end of June fell to 990 million euros ($1.40 billion) from 1.4 billion euros in the same period of 2008, Grafton said, adding that turnover had stabilised since April.

Profits from its UK operations and from investment and property sales broadly offset losses in Ireland, restructuring costs and interest charges in the first half, it said.

"The group has now entered the seasonally stronger trading period of the second half of the year during which it expects to return to modest levels of profitable trading," said Grafton, which owns builders' and plumbers' merchants in the UK and Ireland. ($1=.7087 euros) (Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by Greg Mahlich)



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