29th Jun 2006 07:01
Balfour Beatty PLC29 June 2006 29 June 2006 BALFOUR BEATTY PLC TRADING STATEMENT ==================================== Balfour Beatty plc, the engineering, construction and services group isproviding this update on trading for the half-year ending on 30 June 2006, inadvance of its Interim results announcement on 16 August, 2006. In the first half of 2006, the Group's trading performance has been good.Markets have remained positive and our order book has grown to over £8.5billion. Cash generation and working capital performance have also been strong. The Group's determination to maintain its established growth momentum in thefuture was underlined in the period by the completion of the acquisitions ofCharter, the US construction management and services company, and Edgar Allen,the UK rail products manufacturer, for a net aggregate consideration of £20million; and by the launch of a £32 million recommended cash offer for Birse,the UK regional civil engineering company. The recent financial close of the Birmingham Hospital PPP concession hasconfirmed over £500 million of construction and electrical and mechanicalengineering work and in addition has the potential to generate over £300 millionof long-term service revenues. Balfour Beatty will invest £23 million in thisconcession. There has been good progress across the board in the Building, BuildingManagement and Services sector with order books well ahead and major newcontracts secured in healthcare, education, commercial building and socialhousing. The Civil and Specialist Engineering and Services sector has also continued toperform strongly. Major new projects have been won in UK road maintenance, civilengineering, power engineering and utilities, as well as in Hong Kong, Dubai andAustralia. In Rail Engineering and Services, performance has, as anticipated, reflected theabsence of last year's one-off contract settlements and of generally lowerlevels of activity for Network Rail. Progress is good on the major railcontracts at Heathrow Terminal 5 and work on the London Underground trackrenewal programme continues to accelerate. In the Investments and Developments sector, both Barking Power and the PPPconcession portfolio have performed well and new concessions for BirminghamSchools and Birmingham Hospital reached financial close in the period. In the US, further progress has been made in the continuing process of ensuringthat our interests there share the reliable growth and performancecharacteristics of our UK business model. The Metronet PPP concessions in which we have a 20% stake continue to makesatisfactory progress in most areas, although there have been delays to thestation upgrade programme and some challenging operating issues. We are takingappropriate steps to ensure that Metronet delivers on its long-term commitmentsand provides returns at the expected levels. We anticipate our businesses will continue to perform well in the second half ofthe year and that the Group will make good progress in 2006 as a whole. ENDS Enquiries to:Tim SharpTel: 020 7216 6884www.balfourbeatty.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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