Balfour Beatty has published its annual report and accounts, described by Chief Executive Ian Tyler as   “another excellent financial performance in 2008”.

With over £9bn in revenues and describing itself as strong both operationally and financially, the company said that  the scale and the resilience of its business model would serve it well in a difficult economic environment. The majority of Balfour Beatty revenues were derived from public and regulated customers in the year – and the company said that this would continue to be the case.

At the end of 2008 the company had an order book of £12.8bn, with £4.9bn of further work at preferred bidder stage. Pre-tax profits of £249m were up 24% on the previous year (2007: £201m), while operating profits from continuing operations in the building sector increased by 26%, in the engineering sector by 27%, in the rail sector by 3%and in the investments sector by 94%. In May 2008, Balfour Beatty raised £182m by completing a placing of new ordinary shares, maintaining its policy of carrying no net debt on the balance sheet and enabling it to continue to take advantage of acquisition opportunities.

During the previous eight years, Balfour Beatty’s substantial acquisition programme has been funded from operating cash flow and the proceeds of disposals. This includes the acquisitions of Birse in 2006 and Cowlin in 2007, and Dean & Dyball, a well-established contractor in southern England andWales, in March 2008. Together with Mansell, which the company acquired in 2003, the acquisitions have substantially enhanced Balfour’s regional coverage across the UK.