Balfour Beatty hits UK margin target but troubled civils job weighs on US profit

Image: Balfour Beatty

The news came as the contractor unveiled a “largely positive” set of half-year results for the year to 27 June.

Total revenue for the period increased to just under £5.2 billion (US$7 billion), while total pre-tax profit rose to £132 million ($178.8 million), up from £112 million ($151.7 million) in the same period a year before. Underlying pre-tax profit was flat at £95 million ($128.7 million).

The company’s order book also rose to £19.5 billion ($26.4 billion), up from £16.6 billion ($22.5 billion) at the end of the half-year 2024.

Balfour Beatty’s UK construction arm generated nearly £1.6 billion (US$2.2 billion) in revenue, representing an increase on just under £1.5 billion (US$2 billion) in the same period a year before. An underlying profit of £56 million ($75.9 million) for HY 2025 resulted in a profit margin of 3.6%, helping the company to reach its 3% target a year early.

Gammon, the company’s 50/50 joint venture based in Hong Kong, saw revenue decline to £547 million ($740.9 million), down from £714 million ($967.1 million) the year before.

US construction saw its revenue increase strongly to £2.1 billion ($2.8 billion), up from £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion). But it made an £11 million ($14.9 million) underlying loss, down from an £18 million ($24.4 million) profit in the half-year of 2024. The company’s chief executive Leo Quinn said that the decline in US profit was due to cost overruns on a highways project in Texas “for which recoveries are being pursued”.

Nonetheless, Quinn said the company’s outlook across its fourth strategic growth market – UK energy transition and security, UK transport, UK defence, and US buildings – has continued to strengthen.

In addition to the 6% growth in its order book, the company pointed to a ten-year, £20 billion ($27.1 billion) pipeline of additional work, including power transmission schemes and the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in the UK, which has now been given the go-ahead by the government, and for which Balfour Beatty is undertaking one third of the civils work.