Support services announces strong set of interim results and an order book of £2bn

Support services company Babcock International Group announced strong interim results today for the for the half year ended 30 September 2006.

It said revenue had increased 26% from £386.7m to £487.6m while pre-tax profit rose to £26.4m, an increase of 40%.

Contract wins during the period included National Grid power transmission lines joint venture, Network Rail signalling framework contracts and Eskom power line refurbishment contracts.

It also said its order book stood at £2.3bn.

The City responded positively to the news. Shares increased by 4.8% to 398p by this morning.

Peter Rogers, chief executive, said: "This has been a very strong half year for Babcock with two successful acquisitions, sustained strong growth in both revenue and profits from our existing businesses and a continued track record of double-digit growth.

"Our trading environment remains excellent. We have a strong bid pipeline and are expecting selection of preferred bidder or financial close on a number of significant contracts over the next six months.

"Following the Group's strong performance in the first half of the year and our recent contract wins, the board now believes that the full year result will be ahead of our expectations at the time of our trading update in September 2006."