黑洞社区

The Balfour Beatty team behind the transformation of London鈥檚 Olympic stadium into West Ham United鈥檚 new ground has been moved on to preparatory work for the 拢1bn One Nine Elms twin tower project in the south of the capital.

Balfour Beatty chief executive Leo Quinn (pictured) told 黑洞社区 the team was now working on the high profile residential job, . The stadium鈥檚 main tenant, West Ham, will play its first home Premier League game at the 54,000-seat venue (pictured, middle) against Bournemouth this Sunday.

, Balfour Beatty was awarded the first stage of a two-stage tender for One Nine Elms - which will rise to 42 and 58 storeys (pictured, bottom) - after an Interserve and Chinese builder joint venture failed to finalise terms with Chinese client Wanda One.

Quinn said the contract was 鈥済oing very well鈥� thus far and the firm had factored in satisfactory 鈥渕argins and cash flow鈥�. He added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e building up an estimate with the customer that will move into a final contract if it suits both parties.鈥�

Quinn was speaking to 黑洞社区 .

Quinn argued the half-year results - which were dragged down by a 拢66m operating loss in UK construction - were nonetheless a sign of 鈥渞eal tangible progress鈥�. He said: 鈥淎fter a pretty distressed 2013 and 2014 a lot of hard work has gone on. [These results] are a point of light from where we can hope to make progress in the second half of the year.鈥�

Commenting on a 拢25m writedown caused by a 鈥渞eassessment of potential liabilities on historical health and safety breaches鈥� following the introduction of stricter sentencing guidelines earlier this year, Quinn said health and safety was the firm鈥檚 鈥渘umber one priority鈥�, but he felt the higher level of fines introduced was 鈥渆xcessive鈥�.

Commenting on the higher level of fines, Quinn said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very worrying area for the industry. If a small company of 拢50m turnover can be fined 拢5m for a single instance that could bankrupt the company.鈥�

Commenting on Balfour鈥檚 struggling UK construction division, Quinn said he remained confident it would return to 鈥渋ndustry-standard margins鈥� of 2-3% by the end of 2018, noting that 81% of the problem jobs the firm had identified last year had now closed, with this set to hit 90% by the end of the year.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e still got 19% [of the problem jobs] to go, and we can always be surprised, but we鈥檝e got most of that behind us.鈥�

Quinn highlighted Balfour鈥檚 improved financial position, with a net cash position of 拢115m and 鈥渙ne of the sector鈥檚 strongest balance sheets鈥�, backed by investment assets worth 拢1.25bn.