Balfour Beatty says on target for market expectations

Balfour Beatty, the FTSE 250 infrastructure firm, says its order book in the three months to the end of September remained at £15.5bn and that it is on track to meet market expectations.

In today's trading update Balfour does not provide specific figures but we know from the half year statement that as of the end of June underlying pre-tax profits had risen slightly to £138m from £133m in 2010, while revenues had edged up to £5.222bn from £5.16bn.

Balfour is certainly being battered by the winds of austerity in the UK as government cuts have hit levels of construction, but the company argues its geographic spread in higher growth areas such as the Middle East and Australia have offset the domestic malaise.

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There have been some operational highlights, including the completion of the aquatics centre for the London 2012 games and the headquarters for the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Virginia.

The US market is a curious mix of good news (substantial growth in orders) and less good (the work Balfour is getting is not "high-margin", meaning profits are hard to come by).

At the end of September, net cash was at £240m, down from the position in June as a result of the purchase of the US building firm Howard S Wright.

In its outlook statement Balfour stresses that market conditions "will continue to be tough" but that long-term prospects for the infrastructure market are positive.

Shares in Balfour Beatty were down 1.2% at 236.7p at 09:00.

BS