RAIL Engineering & Services at Balfour Beatty saw a 5% rise in operating profits to £43m in the year to December 31 2004, on turnover of £803m.
The company’s UK projects, plant and track systems businesses ’performed well’, and Balfour Beatty said that the infrastructure maintenance contracts taken in-house by Network Rail ’were settled on satisfactory terms’. Renewals work for London Underground is ’now increasing sharply’.
There were losses at US business Balfour Beatty Rail Inc, which has been reduced in size and had its carrying value written down by £16m. Weaknesses in the German market brought reorganisation costs, but ’major projects in Italy, Portugal and the rest of the world progressed well’. Across all sectors, Balfour Beatty reported a pre-tax profit of £150m before goodwill charges and exceptional profits, up from £130m in 2003. Turnover was up 13% to £4·17bn.
