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Balfour Beatty plc, the international engineering, construction, services and investment Group, has published a trading update for the half-year ended 27 June 2009 in advance of its half-year results announcement on 12 August 2009.
Balfour Beatty’s trading performance in the year continues to be in line with expectations, underpinned by continued infrastructure expenditure by customers, the benefit of acquisitions and tight costs control.
The company said it continued to have a high-quality order book, which, at the half year, is expected to be broadly in line with the £12.8 billion reported for 31 December 2008. Its cash position also remains strong with average net cash in excess of £200 million for the first six months of 2009.
Sector Performance
Performance in the building sector has exceeded last year, with the UK steady and the US strong. In the Engineering sector, Balfor Beatty’s performance in UK civil engineering has been strong and the Group has made good progress on road projects including the M74, A3, A421 and A46.
In Rail reduced volumes in some parts of the UK market had impacted the start of the year, with Germany also down on last year. The company also recently secured a two-year, £130 million extension to its track renewal alliance contract with London Underground and an £80 million extension to a track renewal contract with Network Rail. Good progress had also been made in other parts of the business including in Italy on the Bologna to Florence high-speed line and in Malaysia with the signing of a rail electrification and power supply project.
In the Investments sector, the Group reached financial close in the first half of the year on three of the four PPP projects at preferred bidder stage, including the £170 million Fife General Hospital and the £200 million Southwark Schools for the Future programme. As part of the Connect Plus consortium, it also reached financial close for the £6.2 billion design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) contract to provide additional capacity and to maintain the M25 motorway. Financial close on the Carlisle Northern Development Route project is also expected shortly.
Balfour Beatty said that its strong market positions, the resilience of its business model and a high-quality order book meant that the Group anticipated making progress in 2009.
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