Balfour Beatty plc has published its full-year results for the year ended 31 December 2010. The international infrastructure group said the results demonstrated a resilient performance in challenging markets.

Pre-tax profit was up up 20% to £319 million, partly due to Balfour’s evolving mix of business after the consolidation of Parsons Brinckerhoff, but also due to “excellent operational performance in Professional Services and Construction Services.”

The company also has a record order book in place- up 8% at £15.2 billion (2009: £14.1 billion). £7.2bn of the order book relates to work expected to be carried out in 2011, an increase of 9% on the equivalent figure of £6.6bn in the order book at the end of 2009. 

Revenue including joint ventures and associates improved by 2% to £10,541m. This was due to acquisitions, including the consolidation of Parsons Brinckerhoff for the full year for the first time, which accounted for 13% growth. Balfour Beatty attributed the underlying reduction of 11% in revenue largely to weakness in construction markets both in the UK and the US.

Chief Executive Ian Tyler said:

"We are pleased with the resilient set of results achieved in challenging market conditions in a number of our major markets. The diversity and strength of the Group is evident in the overall performance, and the successful integration of Parsons Brinckerhoff has driven our growth.

We have started 2011 with a record order book, a focus on cost and operational delivery and the intention to generate additional profits from PPP asset disposals. While we do not expect, in the short term, a meaningful recovery in the UK and US infrastructure markets, we expect to make progress this year.

Over the medium and long term, we expect global infrastructure to be a growth market. We have put in place a clear strategy, and the Group is well-placed to benefit from the growth in this market based on our depth of infrastructure knowledge, breadth of capability and the strength of our balance sheet."

During 2010 the company announced a series of initiatives for the next four to five years designed to take full advantage of the expected long-term growth in infrastructure markets. Balfour Beatty said it plans to invest to grow its capabilities both organically and by acquisition, particularly in professional and support services and in markets where it sees the greatest opportunities.

The firm said it would also seek to generate greater income from its Infrastructure Investments activity and expects to act increasingly as a developer and to make a regular stream of mature asset disposals worth £200m-£300m over this period, achieving around £20m in disposal gains per annum.

AMP5 slower than expected

In the water sector, the firm said its Support Services has maintained a good level of activity in the year – despite the adverse impact on revenue and profit by the utilities sector where the ramp-up of work for the UK water industry's 2010-15 asset management plan (AMP5) was slower than expected. Revenue was down 1% to £1,434m and profit was down 7% to £51m, resulting in a slightly lower margin of 3.6%. Balfour Beatty said it expected volumes to pick up in the remainder of the cycle as is typical with the AMP cycles and was confident of an improvement in Support Services performance in 2011, not least due to the expected recovery in AMP5 volumes.