5th Nov 2013 08:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - Construction giant Balfour Beatty PLC Tuesday said its professional services business has seen further deterioration in Australia, in both volume and pricing, which is expected to continue in the fourth quarter.
In August, the infrastructure group highlighted that the consultancy division was struggling, with profit hit hard by a sharp downturn in the Australian market, and as a result full year profit for the arm was expected to be down by around GBP10 million.
Outside Australia, Balfour said the division has performed well with particular strength in US transportation, Asia and the Middle East.
Balfour said problems affecting the professional services division had been offset by a larger contribution than previously anticipated from the investments division, and consequently the firm expects to exceed current market expectations for 2013.
It said recycling the capital invested in the investments portfolio had delivered a "very favourable" outcome in the period and subsequently it expects full-year profit for the investment arm to exceed its expectations at the time of the half-year results by GBP30 million.
Overall the company said its construction and support service divisions have performed well and in line with expectations.
Balfour said its order book improved slightly in the third quarter at constant exchange rates. However, at actual exchange rates, the adverse impact of a weaker US dollar during the period resulted in a small reduction in the order book to GBP13.8 billion compared with GBP13.9 billion at the end of the first half.
Within this, the Professional Services order book has remained stable since the half year as did construction and support services, Balfour said.
The company said it expects year-end net debt to be in the region of GBP350 million.
In early trading Tuesday, Balfour Beatty shares are off 0.37 pence at 283.9p.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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