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

Financial Close Texas Student Accommodation

BALFOUR BEATTY REACHES FINANCIAL CLOSE ON US$104 MILLION
TEXAS STUDENT ACCOMMODATION PROJECT

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces today that it has reached financial close for phase one of the Texas A&M University student accommodation project valued at US$104 million (£62 million).

Balfour Beatty is integrating its design, construction and investment capabilities to deliver the project. The Investments business will earn a development fee for its participation and the US Construction Services business will provide design and build services.

This is the first of a two phase project with an estimated combined value of US$200 million (£119 million). Phase one of the development at College Station, Texas, will feature 1,274 beds configured in apartment designs, as well as community areas and other amenities for the University's undergraduate population. Construction will commence immediately, with the first students expected to move in during August 2015.

Negotiations on the second phase are expected to be concluded later this year.

Hopefully starting the next wave down. Sub 220p would become interesting again for me.

£160m Contract for Sellafield Nuclear Facility

BALFOUR BEATTY JOINT VENTURE RECEIVES INSTRUCTION FOR THIRD PHASE OF SELLAFIELD NUCLEAR FACILITY CONTRACT VALUED AT £160 MILLION

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces today its joint venture with Cavendish Nuclear has received instruction for the third phase of a contract to construct a new silo maintenance facility for Sellafield Ltd, valued at £160 million.

Working in a 45:55 joint venture, Balfour Beatty and Cavendish Nuclear (the UK's largest supplier of specialist services to the nuclear industry) will deliver the facility which will be an integral part of Sellafield's long-term waste retrieval hazard reduction programme.

This final phase of works follows the first two phases consisting of a £5.5 million preliminary design phase and £12.5 million detailed design and enabling works.

more..

Trading Statement

Balfour Beatty plc, the international infrastructure group, is providing this trading update ahead of its results for the half-year ended 27 June 2014 which will be announced on 13 August 2014. This replaces the half year trading update scheduled for 10 July 2014.

Overall Performance

We have seen a further worsening in the trading performance of the mechanical and electrical engineering (Engineering Services) part of our UK construction business since our Q1 Interim Management Statement. This further deterioration amounts to a £35 million profit shortfall but will be broadly offset by further targeted PPP disposal gains in the second half of 2014. Elsewhere, there has been no material change in the Group's operations. Overall Group pre-tax profit expectations for 2014 remain unchanged since the Q1 IMS, in the range of £145 - £160 million.

Divisional Performance

As previously highlighted we are on a 12-18 month programme to restore our UK construction business to a firm footing. Whilst the regional and major projects businesses, which comprise 90% of the UK construction business, are on track and continue to perform in line with our expectations, there has been further deterioration in the Engineering Services business.

Earlier in the year we appointed new management to Engineering Services to strengthen management control and project reviews. This has improved transparency and introduced greater rigour and scrutiny of contract positions. As a consequence we have identified a further £35 million profit shortfall within Engineering Services. £30 million of this relates to a small number of existing contracts, predominantly in the London area: £20 million from a further deterioration in the projects previously highlighted, and £10 million due to issues identified on other contracts.
A number of factors have contributed to this further deterioration. These include design changes, project delays, rework on projects and contractual disputes on a number of projects.

Greater selectivity in a slow market coupled with rigour in estimating and tender margins has resulted in a low order intake, a reduction in revenue expectations and therefore a £5 million reduction in forecast profit from new orders in 2014.

Given these issues, we are reviewing the size and geographic footprint of the business with the aim of ensuring a smaller, more focussed business. In central London, Engineering Services will only be working with Group companies where it can influence design and add value for customers.

Elsewhere in Construction Services, our US Construction business continues to perform well and in line with our expectations. In the Middle East, progressively improving conditions in the broader Dubai construction market are in the short term being offset by continuing challenging conditions in the M&E market. The market in Hong Kong continues to be strong, although the long term nature of recent project wins and delays to a small number of existing projects mean it will take time for these to feed through into financial performance.

Support Services is trading in line with expectations with good performances on our highways services contracts and rail renewals activities. In addition the division has performed well in the current framework competitions in the utilities sector.

In Infrastructure Investments we have continued to implement our PPP concession disposal programme, achieving gains totalling £51 million in the year to date. Given this very strong performance and the continuing favourable secondary market for infrastructure assets we are targeting further PPP disposals in the second half of 2014. Full year PPP disposal profits will be broadly in line with those achieved in the full-year 2013. Recognising the strength of the secondary market we are also intending to increase the Directors' Valuation at the half year.

Professional Services has performed well and in line with our expectations. In May we announced our decision to evaluate options for the possible sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff - a competitive sales process is now fully underway and proceeding in accordance with the Board's expectations.

The level of the order book remains broadly unchanged from £12.9 billion at the end of Q1.

Financial position

The Group continues to operate with good balance sheet strength. Average net debt for the first half of 2014 was slightly higher than expectations at £420 million.

ENDS

So glad I took a small profit a few weeks ago. Figures don't look that bad to me, but obviously the market isn't impressed.

EDIT: Just seen the £35m shortfall!

Stopped out on my last trade - contract win after contract win - one day I'll get my head around this lot!

Nothing in the Forward Diary so this came as a surprise :-(

Mirabaud note today:
"The market fears worse to come. After the downgrades to 2015 and beyond, BBY will be left trading on a low teens multiple of earnings and a yield of around 6.5%. Actually it won’t be trading on a yield of 6.5%; it will more likely be trading on a yield of something between zero and 3.25%, because no new CEO is going to accept the constraint of a poorly covered dividend that absorbs a major slice of cash flow as they attempt to turn around a struggling low margin, cyclical business.

We expect the share register will be witnessing a bit of fluidity currently, since income funds will not be relishing the upcoming dividend risk. Quite where they go is another matter, since Balfour Beatty was one of the last big yields left out there. But if your income holders depart, by definition you are left with an investor base that is there for the capital gain.

Currently Balfour Beatty is marketing their US Professional Services business for sale, with price tags of up to $1bn being talked of. The PPP portfolio is clearly liquid, since disposal proceeds and achieved prices are surprising on the upside. So much of BBY is currently being turned into cash, or is capable of doing so, at premium valuations.

The last Directors Valuation of the PPP portfolio was £766m, after realising disposal gains in 2013 of £82m. We know that disposal gains of at least £35m have been achieved this year already, from today’s statement, so the minimum value of the portfolio, including disposal proceeds is going to be £800m, and it is not too much of a stretch to get to a billion.

So add up the value of US Professional Services, the PPP portfolio and subtract £420m of net debt and you end up with a net cash position, if all those bits are sold of around £1.2bn, and the market cap is £1.4bn. But of course, that still leaves you with Construction Services, which used to make well over a hundred million, plus the UK Professional Services, plus the Gammon JV in Hong Kong.

Unless there is something very rotten at the core of the Construction Services business, then it looks to be deeply undervalued on a SOTP basis within Balfour Beatty. Corporate activity has to be a real possibility, not least because the group will be talking to lots of construction and engineering M&A bankers and competitors currently as part of the US divisional sale process.

Margins are clearly depressed and Balfour appears to be a potential recovery story with a useful M&A fillip potentially in there for nothing. By converting assets into cash Balfour can buy itself time and give it the flexibility to make the changes to its business that it needs. Other names in UK construction are already faring better, and we note with interest Carillion’s apparently successful restructuring of their own UK construction business and wonder how much can be read across to Balfour.

Shareholders must surely have had enough by now, so if anyone wants to have a go, they are unlikely to find a hostile reception. The Board must know that their only defence is a rapid recovery; the question is, will they be allowed time to effect one?"

If you like a risk and think Balfour Beatty shares have hit bottom, now is the time to buy, Danny Fortson wrote in The Sunday Times. Shares in the construction company have fallen by a third since March as it has published two public warnings since its annual results. The latest came on July 3rd when Balfour revealed problems at its engineering services arm. Most of its troublesome over-budget contracts run out soon and it is a big, diversified company. Things could get worse but the company is also vulnerable to a takeover with rumours of private equity interest. If investors are feeling lucky they may want to have a go, Fortson said.

Nice Div of £ 290.75 for me on the 4th

BALFOUR BEATTY JOINT VENTURE WINS HK$3.91 BILLION (£300 MILLION) BUILDING CONTRACTS IN HONG KONG

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces today that its Hong Kong based joint venture Gammon Construction has won two building contracts with a combined value of HK$3.91 billion (£300 million).

Gammon Construction, a 50/50 joint venture with Jardine Matheson, has been awarded a HK$2.82 billion (£216 million) contract by the Hong Kong Housing Authority for a public rental housing development in Tuen Mun in the New Territories, which will provide approximately 4,600 flats in 33 to 38 storey towers and other community facilities. The project will be completed by 2016/2017. To counter a shortfall in housing, the Hong Kong government is aiming to provide 470,000 units over the next decade with public housing accounting for 60% of this growth.

The second contract, valued at HK$1.09 billion (£84 million), follows Gammon's previous work for Hong Kong Science Park Phases 3a and 3b. The new Phase 3c involves constructing two research and development offices and laboratory-enabled buildings. The project will meet the stringent Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK-BEAM) Plus Platinum standard, and will be completed by the end of 2015.

Balfour Beatty Executive Chairman Steve Marshall said: "These projects build on an already strong order book in Hong Kong and there is potential for more opportunities as the demand for housing and sustainable buildings continues. With a solid track record in delivering these construction projects, our project teams are also committed to realising our vision regarding safety, quality and environmental performance.

StockMarketWire.com
Balfour Beatty has been awarded a £129m contract to upgrade a 13 mile stretch of the M3 through Hampshire and Surrey to a 'smart motorway'.

The upgrade, for the UK Government's Highways Agency, will increase capacity, reduce congestion and shorten journey times for the 120,000 motorists who pass through this part of the network every day.

StockMarketWire.com
Balfour Beatty has been awarded a $136m contract to build a prestigious and environmentally responsible office complex in the heart of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina - the latest in a series of awards to develop the city's economic and commercial infrastructure.

The building, known as 300 South Tryon, is being developed by Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC and consists of a distinctive 25-storey office building and a four level underground parking garage.

The office building is being planned to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. LEED is the internationally-recognised green building certification system established by the US Green Building Council, which promotes sustainable building and practices.

Developing LEED solutions is a key strategic component of Balfour Beatty's US construction strategy in response to clients' demands for more environmentally-friendly buildings.

Balfour Beatty has won a number of significant contracts to develop Charlotte's infrastructure in support of its economic growth. Earlier in 2014, the City of Charlotte awarded Balfour Beatty a US $131 million rail contract to build track and systems components to extend the city's light rail system. This award followed a US $106 million civil engineering contract for the same light rail system. Balfour Beatty has also constructed a number of high profile buildings in the area including the global headquarters of specialist manufacturers SPX, the 32 storey 1 Bank of America Center, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Student Union building.

Thanks Harry - I totally missed the news (I don't hold these atm!!)

Nor do I sadly, though I do have CLLN.

Unfortunately I recently sold my CLLN to buy into PHNX.

Why the drop? Has the merger talks fallen through?

Thanks sk. Merger talks are off.

Well not often I get it right. Bought on the profit warning drop, sold on the merger announcement. Back in again today...

Several pieces in the Sunday Times - evidently the merger/takeover is still very much alive with or without Parsons Brink etc which has 4 possible buyers. Still some upside to the bby share price, up to £3 mentioned.