(Alliance News) - Balfour Beatty PLC on Thursday said trading has been in line with expectations since the start of the year.
Ahead of the London-based infrastructure construction firm's annual general meeting on Thursday, the company said it is confident of "managed growth in profits" this year.
Its UK construction remains on track to deliver industry standard margins of 2-3% for 2022, the company noted. In its Construction Services arm, it is performing in line with expectations, despite Covid-19 disruption in Hong Kong.
In support services, the power, road and rail maintenance businesses continue to perform well and in line with the margin target of 6-8%.
Chief Executive Leo Quinn said: "We remain confident that the group is well positioned for 2022 and beyond. Our business portfolio has been transformed to focus on the growing infrastructure markets of the UK, US, and Hong Kong - each underpinned by strong government investment programmes. The strength of our balance sheet and the higher quality of our order book will enable us to maximise these opportunities for profitable growth while remaining resilient to the current macro-economic challenges."
At the end of March, Balfour's order book was GBP15.6 billion, compared with GBP16.1 billion in December.
"The board continues to have confidence the group will deliver managed growth in profits in 2022, building on the GBP181 million delivered by the earnings-based businesses in 2021," the company noted.
As part of its multi-year share buyback programme, through the first four months of the year, the group has acquired just under GBP19 million of its shares and expects to complete the full GBP150 million share buyback for 2022 by the end of the year.
Balfour Beatty shares were down 1.8% at 236.60 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
By Xindi Wei; xindiwei@alliancenews.com
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Balfour Beatty (BBY)