Firm helping build HS2 railway sees construction income up 7%

Bouygues, which is helping build part of the HS2 railway in the Chilterns, saw profit bounce back to pre-pandemic levels last year after being ravaged by lockdowns in 2020.

The French giant, whose £400m turnover UK business recently completed a cancer centre in London for UCLH, said operating profit was 1% up on the 2019 number to €1.7bn (£1.4bn) – a 39% rise on last year’s figure of €1.2bn (£1bn).

Bouygues

Revenue at the firm’s biggest business, construction, was up 7% last year to €27.9bn (£23.3bn)

Revenue was 8% up last year to €37.6bn (£31.4bn), less than 1% off the €37.9bn (£37.6bn) it posted in 2019.

Bouygues, whose activities range from construction to media and telecoms, said income at its largest business, construction, increased 7% to €27.9bn (£23.3bn) with the rise driven by a recovering domestic sector which had been hit by a strict lockdown at the height of the pandemic. Overseas incomes was up 4%, it added.

The construction business posted an operating profit of €825m (£689m), more than double last year’s €388m (£324m), but still €85m (£71m) lower than 2019’s figure.

But it said its 3% operating margin last year was just below the 3.1% it recorded in 2019 and nearly three times the number it posted in 2020.

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