LONDON: Rok, the maintenance and building services group, announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2010. The company cut its dividend after a week in which the troubled group revealed accounting problems and suspended its finance director.

EXTER: Harry Tincknell, the son of Connaught's former executive chairman, has benefited from series of sponsorship deals from suppliers to Connaught.

DUBLIN: Oaktree Capital, a US private equity group, is in talks to take control of McInerney Holdings, the debt-laden Irish housebuilder, the Financial Times reported today.

LONDON: Shares in maintenance firm Rok fell 40% after a breakdown in financial after the building group suspended its finance director for "serious failings" regarding the financial reporting of its plumbing business.

CREWE: Connaught, the financially troubled social housing group, is in emergency talks with its lenders about a possible debt-for-equity swap.

LONDON: Taylor Wimpey kicked off first-half results from British house builders by posting a pre-tax profit before exceptional items of £19.6m, compared with a loss of £68.9m in the same period last year.

EXETER: Yesterday banks granted Connaught, the embattled local authority service provider, a £15m overdraft facility giving the company time to negotiate a deal with lenders and safeguard its longer-term future.

CRAWLEY: Builders have warned of tough times ahead despite the unexpected second quarter growth in GPD with a surge in construction activity.

SANDY: Building firm Kier Group cheered markets with signs of revival in commercial building markets as it flagged up annual profits at the top end of market hopes.

LONDON: House builder Bovis Homes said it will resume paying dividends at the end of the financial year as it posted solid trading in the first-half, leaving it on track to meet 2010 targets.

LONDON: The construction industry faces growing uncertainty amid government plans to cut spending on building projects.

YORK: House builder Persimmon is cautiously upbeat about its propsects following a 26% rise in half-year turnover, despite a slowdown in sales prior to the budget.

BROCKWORTH: Social housing maintenance group Mears has issued a strong defence of the its prospects in the face of the recent profit warning from rival company, Connaught.