Balfour Beatty shrugs off recession

Balfour Beatty has issued an up-beat trading statement for 2009 ahead of its full results announcement on 4 March. Among other positive indicators, it finished the year with an order book of UK£ 13.7 billion (€ 15,3 billion), up +9,6% on the figure of UK£ 12,5 billion (€ 14,0 billion) at the end of June.

Following the acquisition of Parsons Brinckerhoff in the US in October, Balfour Beatty has reorganised into four business segments - construction services, professional services (which includes Parsons Brinckerhoff), support services and infrastructure investments.

The company said its construction services business had a "particularly strong year with good performances for the building business, especially in the US." It highlighted contract wins to build housing for the US military, two infrastructure schemes in Hong Kong and public sector work in the UK as evidence of this.

Balfour Beatty also singled out its infrastructure investments business as being strong.