Country’s biggest contractor sees income hit £4.7bn

Balfour Beatty saw profit and turnover rise, the firm said in its latest set of interim figures this morning.

In the six months to June, the company said pre-tax profit was up one third to £112m on turnover up 3% to £4.7bn. But underlying profit stayed flat at £98m.

Income from its UK construction business fell 4% to £1.45bn, which it said was down to lower workloads at the Hinkley Point C contract, but operating profit was up 13% to £34m which helped push margins up to 2.3% from 2% last time.

balfour final

Operating margins at its UK construction business were up to 2.3% in the first half

Its biggest business is its US arm with revenues flat at £1.7bn and operating margins slipping from 1.2% last time to 1.1%.

Its order book was up £200m to £16.6bn with average net cash during the period climbing from £695m to £735m.

Broker Investec is expecting full year revenue to be up 2% to £9.8bn and pre-tax profit to be around £273m, up from £261m.

In a note, it added: “It is encouraging to see full year expectations on track, and we strongly believe its target markets of UK energy, transport and defence and the US buildings business will yield good performance.”

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