Balfour reigns on as Durkan and Leadbitter hit the big time

Balfour Beatty’s dominance of British contracting continued in September as it took the top slot in the contractors league, and stretched its total for the year to £3.2bn – £1bn more than second-placed Kier.

It clinched £295m worth of contracts during September, £244m of which came from the public sector in general and the £136m Tameside hospital scheme in particular.

Snapping at its heels was HBG, which picked up £270m worth of contracts in September after hoovering up £203m of commercial work, complemented by £67m of public sector contracts.

Morgan Sindall also enjoyed a good month as it moved up into third place with £222m worth of work, of which £179m were public sector contracts.

September proved a good month for the up and coming mid-sized contractors with Leadbitter and Durkan catapulting themselves into the top 10. Leadbitter jumped from 11th to fifth on the back of a strong showing from its housing division, which earned £110m of the company’s £138m workload. Meanwhile Durkan came from nowhere to sixth after earning £136m over the month, of which all but £250,000 was accounted for by its large housing arm.

September was not so kind to Skanska, which plunged from the best earner in August to 26th place. The company earned £15.9m from its commercial operations.

Balfour Beatty also eased its way to the top of the contractors tables when civils work was taken into account, clinching £317m worth of work during September.

Skanska suffered slightly less of a plunge when its civils work was taken into consideration as it tumbled from first to 17th with £34.8m worth of work helped by a £19.7m contribution from its civils division.

Over the year Balfour remained on top with £3.2bn of work on the back of a massive 741 contracts. Kier remained in second place with £2.3bn earned from 477 contracts. The most interesting development was that HBG jumped into the number three slot, up from fifth last month, after a strong third quarter pushed its earnings for the year to £2bn.