黑洞社区

Balfour Beatty鈥檚 half-year pre-tax profit has risen 32% to 拢141m thanks to, in part, its acquisition of US project management firm Parsons Brinkerhoff last year.

The firm added that apart from the first full contribution from the US-based consultancy arm, the rest of the group had also performed well with underlying group profits up 3%.

Chief executive Ian Tyler added that, despite the results, which are way ahead of City expectations, the firm would still be focused on cost savings. He said Balfour Beatty expects to make savings of over 拢30m a year, a third of which will come from improved competitiveness at project level, and the rest from changes to group back office support.

The UK鈥檚 biggest contractor by both profit and turnover, Balfour also reported that it closed a 拢230m street lighting contract for Coventry and signed a 拢460m contract for the second phase of satellite building for Heathrow Airport鈥檚 terminal 2.

The firm鈥檚 order book stood at 拢14.6bn at June 2010, up from 拢14.1bn at the end of last year.

The cancellation of the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future (BSF) programme has hardly affected the firm 鈥� despite having numerous contracts and being preferred bidder on three other schemes as part of the programme. Tyler pointed out that with a turnover of over 拢10bn, the BSF work represents only 2% of the business.

He said: 鈥淲hile the timing of short-term movements in individual markets is difficult to predict, we now have significant capabilities across the infrastructure lifecycle and operate in diverse markets and geographies, which gives us strength and resilience.

鈥淲e have a high-quality order book of 拢14.6bn at June and a number of opportunities in the second half of the year.

鈥淭his, along with the actions taken and proposed to drive efficiency, means we are well positioned to manage any challenges in individual markets.鈥�