UPDATE 1-Carillion glad of limited UK exposure after Brexit

(Adds details, quotes and share price movement)

By Rahul B

July 6 (Reuters) - British building support services companyCarillion derives less than 5 percent of its revenuefrom the UK housing market, limiting its exposure to the falloutfrom the country's vote to leave the EU, its CEO said onWednesday.

Amid rising concerns of a slump in the UK market after thecountry voted to leave the European Union, CEO Richard Howsonsaid Carillion had cut back its exposure to Britain'sconstruction market since 2009 and had "very deliberately"controlled the size of UK residential work it had bid for inrecent months.

"We are very happy today with the action we took in 2009-10to half the size of our construction business in the UK ... thatdecision was absolutely the right decision and has enabled us tolimit the exposure to the residential market," Howson toldanalysts on a conference call.

Howson said the Brexit vote had created uncertainty in theUK economy and it was too early to predict the extent to whichit would impact businesses, including Carillion.

Shares of UK construction-related companies have been hithard since the result of Britain's referendum on EU membershipwas announced on June 24, but Carillion shares jumped 3 percent to 228.2 pence by 0849 GMT on Wednesday, after it said itexpected higher first-half revenue.

Howson said Carillion's focus this year would be to win newbusiness in the Middle East, especially the UAE ahead of theExpo 2020.

Brokerage Stifel said Carillion, which maintains railways,roads and military bases in Britain, could benefit frompotential infrastructure investment to stimulate the Britisheconomy.

The company said it was bidding for five lots of UK defencecontracts that could be worth as much as 600 million pounds inrevenues. Its order book stood at 17 billion pounds at the endof the first half, during which it won support servicescontracts worth up to 600 million pounds, including twocontracts from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and anextension of a contract for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). ($1 = 0.7741 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish and Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing bySunil Nair and Susan Fenton)

Carillion Plc