Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, services and investment group, has issued a confident trading update. Steve Marshall, Chairman of Balfour Beatty, announced the update – which is also the Group's Interim Management Statement for the period 1 January to 13 May 2009 - to shareholders this morning at the company’s Annual General Meeting. Mr. Marshall said that trading performance in 2009 has been in line with expectations, underpinned by a high-quality order book, continued infrastructure expenditure by customers, the benefit of acquisitions and tight costs control. Despite the current economic climate, Balfour Beatty's cash position has remained strong . Average net cash for the first four months of 2009 was in excess of £200 million . Mr. Marshall said that performance in the Building sector had exceeded last year, with the UK steady
and the US strong., with the UK delivering a strong performance in the Engineering sector.
In the Investments sector, the Group anticipates reaching financial close in the first half of the year on at least three of the four PPP projects currently at preferred bidder stage. At the beginning of May Balfour achieved financial close on the £170 million Fife General Hospital and have announced today that financial close on the £200 million Southwark Schools for the Future programme has also been reached. The company also expects to reach financial close on the M25 widening and maintenance programme shortly.
Mr. Marshall concluded,
"We continue to have a strong order book, which, at the half year, is expected to be broadly in line with the £12.8 billion reported for 31 December 2008.
"Our strong market positions, the resilience of our business model and our high-quality order book mean that we anticipate making progress in 2009."
According to an official statement, Balfour Beatty's financial position, with significant net cash and with strong operating cash flows, provides the company with
"continuing flexibility to add additional capacity and expertise to the business mix and to make appropriate investments in PPP and other long-term growth opportunities."
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