Balfour Beatty's financial woes continue throughout 2015

International infrastructure group, Balfour Beatty, continues to have a troubling 2015 as the company has releases its half-year financial results, ending 26th June.

The industry giant has reported a pretax loss of £150m in this year’s first six months, compared to £58m at the same point in the previous year.

Balfour Beatty also reported a total profit loss of £150m, which is, once again, a much more severe than 2014’s loss of £43m at the halfway stage.

However, the group managed to sustain less damage to its total revenue loss compared to last year’s £4,225m at the six month stage, which was reported at £4,191m. The underlying order book has also remained stable since the start of the year at £11.3bn (2014: £11.4bn).

Balfour Beatty are hoping to turn round its financial woes with the Build to Last transformation programme - launched in February - which aims to drive continuous measurable improvement against four goals: Lean, Expert, Trusted and Safe to address performance as it affects all stakeholders.

This is a complex transformation which will be delivered over the medium term. The group hope the 24-month self-help phase will restore Balfour Beatty to industry-standard performance and profitable growth. any initiatives and changes are underway and already beginning to have an impact on the operations of the business.

Leo Quinn, Group Chief Executive commented: “Six months in, our Build to Last transformation programme is gaining traction throughout the business. We have a new senior leadership team and an organisation re-aligned with key customer sectors. We are on course to meet our 24-month targets for £200 million cash in and £100 million cost out.

“In rising core markets, the Group is continuing to win business on better terms across our operations. In the last few months the awards of contracts or preferred bidder status for three landmark projects - Bergstrom Expressway in Austin Texas, nuclear new build Hinkley Point C power station electrical package and a UK smart motorway package - is a further endorsement of Balfour Beatty’s leading capabilities.

“Inevitably the headline numbers set out the consequences of the historic issues that are now being tackled. However the continuing confidence of our customers in Balfour Beatty’s expertise, the positive response of our people to change, demonstrated by our excellent net cash performance, and the underlying strength of our balance sheet, supported by the Investments portfolio, all reinforce my conviction that over the medium term we can provide our customers, employees and shareholders with superior returns.”

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