LONDON - UK construction and engineering group Balfour Beatty has reported a 37 percent increase in the profits for the first six months of the year. The group's pre-tax, post-exceptional profits in the six months ending July2 stood at £67 million ($121 million) as compared with £49 million reported at the same time last year.
The company, which specializes in the construction of railways and hospitals, also said that its order book had grown to £7.4 billion in the first six months. This is an increase of 14 percent from the last year. Commenting on these impressive figures, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive Ian Tyler said, "Overall, the business is doing very well and we see most of the businesses going ahead pretty strongly. Trading prospects in our key markets continue to be positive, although the medium-term outlook in UK and German rail remains unclear."
The UK rail sector continues to be an area of concern for the company as underlying profits in the sector dipped to £20 million from the £23 million reported last year. "The amount of project work in UK rail generally is less, as is the case with Germany with Deutsche Bahn. Short-term trading and prospects for both rail and the overall group are, however, excellent," Tyler said.
The company also revealed that it had taken some losses in some divisions as a result of a rise in the raw material costs. However, Balfour remained very positive as far as the future was concerned, "Significant new orders have been won already in the second half of the year and bidding opportunities in most of our markets remain encouraging. We expect our seasonal performance to resume its normal pattern and anticipate that 2005 as a whole will be a year of good progress," the company said in a statement.
Posted
on : Thu, 18 Aug 2005 08:00 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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