Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure Group, has published its latest financial results for the half-year ended 26 June 2010.

Financial highlights include profit from operations up 34% to £151 million and pre-tax profit up 32% to £141 million with a high-quality order book in place of £14.6 billion (£14.1 billion at December 2009). Around half of the Group’s revenue now derives from outside the UK,

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Ian Tyler said:

“We are reporting another strong performance in the first half of 2010.

We have created a Group which is uniquely well-placed in major markets to benefit from the long-term, global growth in investment in infrastructure. While the timing of short-term movements in individual markets is difficult to predict, we now have significant capabilities across the infrastructure lifecycle and operate in diverse markets and geographies, which gives us strength and resilience.

We have a high-quality order book of £14.6 billion at June 2010 and a number of opportunities in the second half of the year. This, along with the actions taken and proposed to drive efficiency, means we are well-positioned to manage any challenges in individual markets. Our continuing progressive dividend policy reflects our confidence in the Group’s ability to deliver growth over the medium term.

Overall, we remain confident about the outlook for the Group.”

The company also said that the integration of Parsons Brinckerhoff where there was a first full six months’ contribution since its acquisition in October 2009, was continuing to proceed well and ahead of acquisition plan.

However, in the Support services division, increased revenue in the period to £735 million (2009: £726 million), was offset by a reduction in rail renewals and the slow start to AMP5 contracts in the water sector.