French contractors lead European market

Although a third of Europe's largest construction firms are British, none of them managed to make an appearance in the top 10 in a league table of European contractors.

Accountant Deloitte's annual list of the top 100 European contractors named Vinci as the top contractor with €22.3bn (£16bn) construction revenue, followed by domestic rival Bouygues with €18.9bn (£13.6bn) revenue. Balfour Beatty was the highest ranking British company coming in at number 12 with £4.6bn revenue.

Building magazine and Construction News had different perspectives on the story. CN hailed it as a victory for UK firms, which 'mobbed' the European rankings by taking 33 positions in the top 100, the highest national contingent. That's despite the fact that the number is actually down from 36 positions last year. Building magazine underlined the fact that four French companies made the top 10 and no British ones.

Both reported that Taylor Wimpey would have made it to seventh position if the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey had occurred after the table's December 2006 cut-off date.

UK company revenue represented just 22% of total sales in the top 100, whereas French firms in the top 10 accounted for 25% of them, said Building, a difference the report attributed to the more fragmented UK market and the sheer scale of Vinci and Bouygues.