Balfour Beatty sees FY slightly ahead of forecasts; strong order book

Construction group Balfour Beatty said it expected full year profit from operations to be slightly ahead of expectations after additional infrastructure investment disposals in the second half.

The company on Thursday said profits would be “broadly” in line with 2018's £205m with revenue forecast to be around 5% higher than the prior year figure of £7.8bn.

Balfour’s order book at the end of the financial year would be well above £14bn, the company said in a trading update, up from £12.6bn last year.

This did not include work on the HS2 high speed rail project, which had not been approved by the UK government and was subject to a review.

Average monthly net cash was now forecast to be around £310m, ahead of previous £280m - £300m guidance.