Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, reports its financial results for the half-year ended 29 June 2012:
| (£m unless otherwise specified) | 2012 first half |
2011 first half |
Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue including JVs and associates | 5,535 | 5,222 | +6 |
| Group revenue | 4,825 | 4,512 | +7 |
| Profit from continuing operations | |||
| - underlying1 | 156 | 136 | +15 |
| - reported | 95 | 89 | +7 |
| Pre-tax profit from continuing operations | |||
| - underlying1 | 154 | 138 | +12 |
| - reported | 93 | 91 | +2 |
| Earnings per share | |||
| - underlying1 | 18.8p | 14.7p | +28 |
| - basic | 12.2p | 10.2p | +20 |
| Dividends per share | 5.6p | 5.3p | +6 |
| Financing | |||
| - net cash before PPP subsidiaries (non-recourse) | 34 | 292 | |
| - net borrowings of PPP subsidiaries (non-recourse) | (352) | (294) | |
Half-year highlights
- First-half performance demonstrates the diversity, flexibility and resilience of our business
- Good progress on the implementation of the strategy in industry verticals and growth markets
- With £5bn of new orders in the first half, order book stable at £15.0bn (FY2011: £15.2bn)
- Revenue up 6% (+1% excluding the impact of acquisitions and currency)
- Margins up in Professional Services while pressure remains in Construction Services; cost increases in Support Services not expected to be repeated in the second half
- Cost efficiency programmes on track
- £52m gain from infrastructure investment disposals (HY2011: £14m)
- Underlying EPS up 28%
- Interim dividend increased by 6% to 5.6p
- Net cash at £34m impacted by working capital outflow
"We have delivered another set of solid results in challenging markets and remain on track to meet our expectations for the full year.
We are making good progress on the early stages of our growth strategy in key industry verticals where our deep asset knowledge differentiates us from the competition.
The increase in our interim dividend, consistent with our progressive policy, reflects our confidence that we are well-placed to take full advantage of the global growth in infrastructure markets."
Ian Tyler, Chief Executive
