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City analysts have warned that investor patience is running out with social housing and construction firm Rok following its profit warning last week.

Their words of caution follow the company鈥檚 half-year results this morning, which showed turnover had fallen 15% to 拢308m and that pre-tax profit before exceptional items had halved to 拢3m. Its share price has fallen by 92% to 20p in the three years since the credit crunch.

After exceptional items, which included redundancy costs and writedowns on acquisitions, Rok made a pre-tax loss of 拢3.8m in the six months ended 30 June 2010.

Last week鈥檚 profit warning was put down to accounting problems within its plumbing, heating and electrical business. As a result finance director Ashley Martin was suspended and is understood to be unlikely to return to work. It follows a profit warning on 30 April that the firm put down to bad weather and an earlier warning in November 2008, which blamed clients鈥� cashflow problems.

This morning one analyst said: 鈥淚nevitably investors get sick and tired of these warnings and want to see management start delivering now. If things don鈥檛 improve there will be some pretty tough questions asked of the management team that remains.鈥�

Numis analyst Howard Seymour said Rok must show it has 鈥済ot to grips with issues in all major divisions which have blighted profit and share price performance over the past few years.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭he onus on recovery is management-driven, and outweighs macro concerns about the UK construction outlook, and it is for management to provide the actions that are essential for this value to emerge.鈥�

In the half-year net debt fell from 拢57m to 拢48m and the chairman Stephen Pettit emphasised the positives. He said: 鈥淩ok has a diversified range of revenue streams, a growing customer base, a strong order book with a very high level of visibility of work well into next year, significantly improved cash generation, and excellent customer satisfaction.鈥�

Results by division

Construction

Turnover 拢116m (2009: 拢160m)
Operating profit 拢600,000 (拢500,000)
鈥淩ok鈥檚 Construction business (鈥�) continued to target profit over volume through careful customer and project selection. This deliberate tactic has been employed since late November 2008 to minimise risk during the worst phase of the recession. A tight focus on costs has continued and the order book is good.鈥�

Social housing

Turnover 拢84.5m (拢98.4m)
Operating profit 拢3.6m (拢5m)
鈥淭rading in the social housing business was not affected by the change in government and subsequent spending cuts although a slight slowdown in the period between tender and award of contract and a greater emphasis on new build housing rather than planned repairs has been noticeable.鈥�

Maintenance

Turnover 拢116.7m (拢112.6m)
Operating profit 拢2.3m (拢5.4m)
鈥淭he PHE business is not now expected to make any contribution to full year profits and the decision to integrate the PHE operations into our build and maintenance offices will result in charges for operational restructuring and redundancies.鈥�