Balfour Beatty doubles profit in the first half of 2021
Balfour Beatty, a leading international infrastructure group, has doubled its profit for the first half of the year as it steadily recovers from the covid-19 pandemic.
Total profit for the period jumped from £20m last year to £51m in the first half of 2021 while profit from operations surged to £60m from a loss of £14m in 2020.
Shareholders were rewarded with an interim dividend of 3.0 pence per share, 43 per cent higher than in 2019 and a step up from 2020 when no dividends were given. The company purchased £99m of shares through a buyback programme launched this year.
Despite the positive news, the billion dollar company experienced a decline in the value of orders it received worldwide. Balfour Beatty took orders for projects worth £16.1bn in the first six months of the year, down by £1.4bn compared to the same period in 2020.
Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, praised the companies results. He said: “We continue to reshape Balfour Beatty to play to its strengths. These include leading capability in markets where governments are committed to long-term infrastructure programmes.”
In the UK alone the company received orders for infrastructure projects worth £6.2bn with the vast majority of requests coming from the public sector.
Balfour Beatty are predicting that profit from operations for 2021 will be in line with 2019 levels. The company’s share price is up 18.06 per cent this year to date.
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