Anybody trading in these shares? I just bought some @ 204.72

Balfour Beatty chief Ian Tyler steps down after profit warning

Balfour Beatty's long-standing chief executive, Ian Tyler, is to step down just two months after the construction and infrastructure giant issued a surprise profit warning.

Mr Tyler’s departure, first revealed by Sky News, will lead to deputy chief executive and chief operating officer Andrew McNaughton taking over at the helm of the company from March.

Mr Tyler will stay with the group until the end of April to oversee the transition process.

Mr McNaughton, 48, was made deputy chief executive in July last year as part of a succession plan. Shareholders are expected to welcome the appointment.

Trading Statement

Further to our Interim Management Statement of 8 November, overall 2012 performance remains in line with our expectations.

The order book was at £14.2 billion at 30 November 2012; however, given the orders we were awarded in the month of December, notably the £1.2 billion eight-year National Grid contract and the tunnel contract won by Gammon in Hong Kong, the year-end order book is expected to have improved to around £15 billion.

While the magnitude of the order book is broadly in line with the levels at the end of 2010 and 2011, there are certain trends that are worth noting. In keeping with our strategy and given the difficulties in a number of our markets, particularly in UK construction and European rail, the order book mix is shifting from construction to professional services and support services, and overall, from buildings to infrastructure projects. Due to the longer-term nature and back-end loaded margin profile of these contracts, most of the benefit to revenue and profit arises in 2014 and thereafter.

Since the beginning of 2013, we have completed the following transactions, which represent examples of our strategic initiatives as well as some good wins.

· We acquired Subsurface Group, Inc. to expand Parson Brinckerhoff's Energy Storage Services business in the USA. Subsurface is a professional consulting and engineering firm, providing services in underground injection, underground storage and specialty wells, and is forecast to have generated approximately US$50 million (£31 million) of revenue in 2012.

· We were awarded the Wiltshire County Council contract for highways maintenance and street lighting as well as dealing with winter weather, drainage and bridges worth £150 million over five years.

· We have won a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the Garrison Energy Center, a 309MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant in Dover, Delaware in joint venture with Kvaerner.

· We won the £321 million design and construction contract to upgrade sections of the M25 London orbital motorway in a 50/50 joint venture with Skanska.

Succession announcement

We have announced today that, after leading the organisation successfully for eight years, Ian Tyler will hand over to Andrew McNaughton as Chief Executive, effective from 31 March, 2013. Andrew McNaughton is currently Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer.

Financial position

Average net debt for 2012 was approximately £50 million, reflecting the significant cyclical unwind of working capital during the year; we expect to have ended the year with a broadly cash-neutral position.

Outlook

As we stated in the Q3 IMS on 8 November 2012, we have been managing our business on the basis that market conditions would be tough, and this has been an effective strategy. We will take further action, both operationally and strategically where necessary, to mitigate any adverse impacts on our business.

In the medium and long term, we are confident that our position in infrastructure markets, our focus and competitive advantage in the transportation, rail, power, water and mining verticals, and our initiatives to access growing markets such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and India will stand us in good stead as well as making the business more robust.

ENDS

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Buy 290.20 281.50 - 320.00 Upgrades

The other guy downgraded yesterday, probably to close their short positions.

Reaches first close on infrastructure fund

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces that its infrastructure funds management business, Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Partners (BBIP), has reached first close on its first fund.

In November 2010, Balfour Beatty announced plans to set up a funds management business. Our objective was to utilise a combination of infrastructure asset knowledge, skills and experience that has accumulated within the Group, particularly in the Infrastructure Investments division and Parsons Brinckerhoff, to earn a superior return on capital as well as advisory fees. A funds management business would also leverage our capabilities into greater pools of capital while diversifying risk to the Group.

This business, BBIP, was set up in 2011, with the recruitment of four senior individuals. Since then they have worked on obtaining the relevant registrations, establishing a presence in London and New York, identifying investors and pursuing the appropriate initial assets for the fund to invest in.

Today, the BBIP fund reached first close with US$317 million (£200 million) of commitments, of which Balfour Beatty has committed US$110 million (£70 million). Subsequent levels of close are expected during the course of 2013, ultimately reducing Balfour Beatty's share in the fund to c.10%. Drawdowns will be dependent on the timing of investments by the fund, but it is anticipated that Balfour Beatty's commitment will be invested over the next 3-4 years.

The fund will make investments in predominantly brownfield (operational) assets into its key target sectors of transport, energy and utilities across the UK, Europe, and North America.
ENDS

Balfour Beatty eyes £250m WorkPlace sale

Balfour Beatty, Britain’s largest construction company by sales, is planning to dispose of its office maintenance business, in a transaction that would value the division at about £250m.

Contract Win

Balfour Beatty wins £64 million Dubai Airport contract

International infrastructure group Balfour Beatty plc announced today that BK Gulf LLC, its joint venture in Dubai, has been awarded a £64 million (377.8 million AED) mechanical and electrical engineering contract to work on a project that will help Dubai International Airport deal with millions more passengers each year.

PREFERRED BIDDER FOR £45 MILLION STUDENT ACCOMMODATION PROJECT

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, has been appointed preferred bidder for Aberystwyth University's £45 million student accommodation project.

The 32-year concession contract involves the design, build and maintenance of student accommodation facilities for Aberystwyth University. The project, located adjacent to the University's main campus, will provide contemporary accommodation for 1000 students, as well as enhanced learning and communal facilities, which will support the University's strategy of attracting students from the UK and overseas.

Balfour Beatty will invest 10% of the required equity in the project, which is expected to reach financial close in mid-2013.

Final Results

Highlights


· Continued to grow in target geographies and sectors while facing challenges in UK and US construction markets

· Order book up 1% at £15.3bn with 63% now economic infrastructure

· Revenue1 down 1%; down 4% before the impact of foreign exchange and acquisitions

· Continuing profit growth in Professional Services and Investments

· Cost efficiency programme on track to achieve £80 million by 2015; £36 million of savings achieved at a non-underlying cost of £61 million in 2012

· Directors' valuation of the PPP portfolio at £734 million (2011: £743 million) after the disposal of two assets generating disposal gains of £52 million

· Strategic decision taken to divest of Mainland European rail operations; non-underlying cost of £104 million incurred including £95m goodwill write down

· Underlying earnings per share down 1%; full-year dividend increased by 2% to 14.1p


Contract Win

Balfour Beatty awarded £130 million rail contract

A contract in excess of £130 million to build two miles of the Crossrail route and an iconic new rail station in South East London that will deal with thousands of commuters every day has been awarded to leading international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty.

The Group confirmed today that following their involvement in the successful completion of the design phase of the Crossrail South East Section Project, Network Rail has now awarded them the contract for the final phase which will see them build the new station in Abbey Wood, including the replacement of its two existing platforms. It will also involve installing two new dedicated Crossrail lines from the station to the Plumstead portal, providing access to the new Crossrail tunnels into Canary Wharf and central London, and modifications to several bridges along the route.

The new Crossrail route will connect Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km (13 miles) tunnels below central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

....
The group made an underlying pre-tax profit of 310 million pounds in 2012, ahead of analysts' forecasts which ranged between 204 million and 323 million pounds and averaged 295 million pounds.

The construction division finished the year with an order book of 8 billion pounds, down 6 percent on a year ago, including a 17 percent fall in the United States, while revenue in the division was down 1 percent at 6.96 billion pounds.

Total revenue was also down 1 percent at 10.9 billion pounds.

Construction groups have become volatile through the industry downturn that hit in 2008, having embarked on ambitious cost cutting drives and diversifyng into adding new services as well as new markets like Brazil, India and Australia.

Balfour Beatty's Professional -- project management, design and planning -- and Support Services divisions combined jumped from making up 44 percent of its order book in 2011 to 47 percent in 2012, though some analysts worry its progress has been slow.

The order book for Support Services was up 12 percent at 5.7 billion after a 3 percent rise in revenue to 1.6 billion pounds. Professional Services' revenue was up 1 percent at 1.67 billion pounds and the order book was up 9 percent at 1.6 billion.
...

Dividend 14.1p, above 5%.

Balfour Beatty to exit mainland Europe in growth quest

LONDON | Thu Mar 7, 2013 11:46am GMT

(Reuters) - British construction firm Balfour Beatty (BALF.L) plans to sell most of its businesses in mainland Europe to seek growth in Australia and elsewhere, its incoming chief executive said.

Andrew McNaughton, who will take the helm in April, said on Thursday he wanted to "put some pace" into predecessor Ian Tyler's strategy of looking beyond UK construction for growth after Balfour Beatty reported a 7 percent fall in 2012 profit.

Balfour Beatty has already sold its Spanish business to management and McNaughton said he planned to divest all others in mainland Europe by the year-end, except the more decentralised German business, which he said would take longer.

6% dividend stock and is falling!!

Been wondering whether or not to stick with this one, 10% down at the moment and would like to see an intra day reversal or small bounce today if I am going to continue to hold. H

sutherlh1-----I would sell, main reason being I have bought back in today sub 236p and I have this uncanny knack of inflicting sp weakness on most of what I buy. I bought and sold these previously and made a decent rather than spectacular profit so I'm hoping for a repeat performance. Good luck whatever you decide.
2517

Got out at 246p. Must admit sub 236p looks a good entry point from the chart being a level it has bounced from over the last 5 years (apart from late 2011 when it got to sub 220p). It still has a reasonable yield and could bounce from here. Good luck 2517. H

Agree with Sutherlh1 could bounce from here

seems to have bounced - where the sp heading now ?

I can see it up to the 200dma around 270p, before falling off again IMHO. H

Lets see how it opens broker upgrade today