Member Article

Balfour Beatty bolster profits with £52m asset sales

Construction group Balfour Beatty have reported a rise in underlying profits of 12%, owing to £5bn of new orders and the sale of infrastructure investment assets, in the first half of the year.

London’s Olympic Aquatics Centre, and major improvements schemes across the M25, are some of Balfour’s most recent projects.

The firm’s order book is said to be stable at £15bn, as the professional services division continues to perform well, as do support services.

Balfour suggest they have combated volume and margin pressures in their construction business across the UK and US.

The sale of investment assets has generated £52m of gains in the first half, as the company also looks to reposition the construction division on a model based across three business streams.

In what the firm calls the “post-Olympics” world, the UK business has focussed on replenishing order books with smaller, private sector projects.

Most recently Balfour has been awarded the Essex Waste Treatment contract and chosen as preferred bidder for Gloucester Waste to Energy.

Ian Tyler, chief executive, said: “We have delivered another set of solid results in challenging markets and remain on track to meet our expectations for the full year.

“We are making good progress on the early stages of our growth strategy in key industry verticals where our deep asset knowledge differentiates us from the competition.

“The increase in our interim dividend, consistent with our progressive policy, reflects our confidence that we are well-placed to take full advantage of the global growth in infrastructure markets.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .