Balfour Beatty sees flat FY profit; Current trading in line

(Sharecast News) - Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty said it expected annual profits to be flat, with current trading in line with expectations. In a trading update ahead of its yearly shareholders meeting, the company said its order book was £17bn compared with £17.4bn at the end of December.

New projects added to the order book in the first quarter of 2023 include a £297m seven-year East Sussex road maintenance contract, a $242m design-build highways contract in North Carolina and $230m of data centres in the US Northwest.

"Overall trading has been in line with expectations and the board continues to expect the Group's 2023 profit from operations from its earnings-based businesses to be broadly in line with 2022," the company said.

Balfour's average monthly closing net cash balance was £740m over the first three months the year, compared with £815m at the end of 2022, driven by an expected working capital outflow of around £100m and share buybacks.

The company continues to expect a full year working capital outflow of between £75 - £125m for 2023 and for its £150m share buyback to be completed by the end of the year, with £75m completed to date.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com