Balfour Beatty buoyed by construction profit rise
Balfour Beatty has revealed its full-year group results for 2017, showing a pre-tax profit which has more than doubled from the previous year to £148m, contributed to by a significant turnaround in the fortunes of its UK construction division, which has moved back into profit.
The group results show pre-tax profit up from £62m in 2016 to £148m in 2017. For the construction division, a £65m loss in 2016 has turned into a £16m profit.
Balfour Beatty, which has offices and schemes on site across the North West, has been working through chief executive Leo Quinn’s ‘build to last’ recovery plan since the company’s profit dropped dramatically by £350m in 2014, due to 89 problem contracts.
Leo Quinn, group chief executive, said: “These results clearly demonstrate that our Build to Last programme is transforming Balfour Beatty. The Group has been repositioned to drive sustainable growth in profits, underpinned by a strong balance sheet. It has the right culture and capabilities to capitalise on the rising tide of infrastructure spend in our chosen markets.
“As a result of Build to Last, and the governance and controls now in place, we remain on track to achieve industry-standard margins in the second half of 2018. In the medium term, we are building a group capable of delivering market-leading performance.”
Construction Services also improved, from a loss of £21m in 2016, to a profit of £71m.
The year-end figure includes £103m received from the sale of a 12.5% stake in Connect Plus, the company which operates the M25 London orbital motorway.
