Balfour Beatty holds profit guidance; names former ITV boss as chair

(Alliance News) - Balfour Beatty PLC on Thursday said it continues to expect profit at its earnings-based businesses to recover to pre-virus levels, and named former ITV PLC chief executive Charles Allen as its new chair.

Shares were down 1.5% to 306.20 pence in London, slightly underperforming the wider mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which was down 1.3%.

In an update ahead of its annual general meeting on Thursday, the London-based infrastructure developer maintained its expectation that its two earnings-based businesses - Construction Services and Support Services - will deliver underlying profit from operations of GBP172 million in 2021. That would be an increase from the GBP75 million achieved last year, and a recovery to the 2019 level.

The third unit, Infrastructure Investments, has won two new contracts this year, including a GBP130 million student accomodation project at Royal Holloway University. Balfour Beatty has resumed selling assets at the unit after pausing disposals because of the pandemic. The first sale is expected in the first half of this year.

Balfour Beatty's order book shrank in the first quarter of 2021 to GBP15.7 billion from GBP16.4 billion, while average monthly net cash in the year to date was around GBP600 million, up from GBP527 million in 2020.

The company bought back over GBP58 million of shares in the first four months of the year, and expects to complete the full GBP150 million programme by the year end.

Chief Executive Leo Quinn said: "The impact of the pandemic, coupled with political changes in the US and UK, have accelerated those governments' spending plans on infrastructure and sustainability as a means to stimulate economic recovery.

"Today, Balfour Beatty is very well positioned to capitalise on these changes to grow profitably in its chosen markets."

Separately on Thursday, company named former ITV and Compass Group PLC chief executive Charles Allen as its next chair. Allen, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, will take over from Philip Aiken on July 20.

By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com

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