Dawn Group, one of Scotland's largest privately-owned construction and property companies, has unveiled a slip in profits and announced plans to put Ayr Racecourse and the Western House Hotel on the auction block in response to the prevailing economic sloth and the downturn in the housing market.

The Prestwick-based group revealed pre-tax profits of £10.8m for the year to the end of January, compared with £11.4m last time.

In its latest set of financial accounts, obtained by The Herald from Companies House, Dawn revealed the slippage - its second in as many years - was the result of a £3.4m writedown related to declining yields at Glasgow North Retail Park, which is operated by subsidiary Dawn Robroyston.

At the same time, the group's turnover climbed to £108.3m, compared with £106.9m in the previous period.

Asked about its strategy to survive the downturn, Alan Macdonald, Dawn's chief executive, said: "We're going to be all right. We have plenty of cash in the bank and our order books are full.

"We're also very much occupied with PFI school projects and we're also involved with putting up a lot of affordable housing, so we're protected to a degree by our public sector portfolio."

He added: "We're not exposed to a huge land bank. In spite of the downturn, we still expect growth."

Pre-tax profit at the group's Dawn Construction unit climbed to £12.1m, from £4.7m the previous year.

Dawn Homes, the group's housing business, saw its pre-tax profits climb £422,790 to £2.6m - in spite of "a number of planned site commencements postponed due to ongoing delays within local authority and roads departments".

Dawn and partner Richard Johnstone also blamed their decision to sell Ayr Racecourse and Western House Hotel on a combination of the poor state of the housing market and the planning system in Scotland.

Macdonald yesterday told The Herald: "Cross-funding to finance the restoration of Ayr Racecourse to its former glory and to bring all the facilities up to a high standard was to come from residential and commercial developments on surplus land held by the racecourse.

"The planning process took five years, considerably longer than anticipated, and we had to go to public inquiry, but finally in May this year the process was completed."

Cash from housing was also intended to finance part of the rest of the plans, which had included a rock concert venue, a nine-screen multiplex, a casino, a hotel with a 500-seat conference hall and sports bars.

Macdonald added that the land earmarked for housing had not been included in the for-sale package.

"We intend to keep that," he said. "The market will come back."

Meanwhile, the accounts revealed the highest paid director - assumed to be Macdonald - took a pay cut to £196,562, compared with £228,830 last time.