CJ50 Market data: Balfour Beatty powers ahead in February

PDF of market data February 2007

February saw Balfour Beatty return to the top of the CJ50 chart for the first time since October last year thanks to a £550m five-year alliance contract with National Grid. Balfour’s total £646m-plus haul put it nearly £360m ahead of second-placed Kier, and pushed its total for the past 12-month period to nearly £3.88bn.

The contract, which is part of one of the largest procurement exercises undertaken by National Grid, is to upgrade and develop the electricity transmission network in the eastern half of England. There is an option to extend the alliance for a further five years.

Kier rose 12 places to second, largely thanks to a busy month in social housing, which represented the bulk of its £288m, 47 contract total. It also rose two places to third in the 12-month table.

HBG Construction was in third with a £235m commercial haul, which included the £87m Mann Island mixed development on Merseyside. The scheme, spanning around 63,000m2, will kick off with the demolition of warehouses on the former dockyard site. The main feature of the new complex will be two apartment blocks, plus an office block, further commercial space, a primary substation, and a new canal channel basin for British Waterways.

Carillion shot up 18 places to fourth with plenty of infrastructure work. It sealed a £60m five-year signalling deal with Network Rail. Work will involve the delivery of signalling, including alterations, enhancements, safety improvements, small renewal projects and life-extension schemes in the South East. This follows Carillion’s ban to bid for any new rail work, following earlier safety concerns, being lifted by Network Rail.

Morgan Sindall was steady in fifth, announcing a number of sizeable contracts. The group’s infrastructure services provider Morgan Est was awarded a £38m contract by Thames Water to design, construct and commission a 4.9km tunnel in south London. The tunnel will extend the Thames Water Ring Main from an existing shaft in Brixton to a new pump out shaft at Honor Oak Reservoir.

Morgan Est is currently working for Severn Trent Water on its major clean and waste water projects, and announced £25m of work in Birmingham under this arrangement.

Meanwhile, Lovell, the housing subsidiary of Morgan Sindall, announced that it has been selected by Bromford Housing Group for a £34m housing regeneration scheme in the Rea Valley area of Northfield, Birmingham.

Social housing specialist Apollo Group was another non-mover in sixth place, with just seven sizable projects. These included a £70m scheme with Homes for Haringey and a £40m deal with east London-based Ascham Homes.

Wates, in seventh position, had a busy month in the commercial sector. It will undertake £38.5m of redevelopment work in the Solihull suburb of Chelmsley Wood for client Fordgate.

The company has also begun work on a dramatic redevelopment of the former Lewis’s department store in Leeds. The 1930s Headrow building will become a mixed-use development including, shopping, office accommodation and apartments.

Laing O’Rourke climbed from 25th place to take eighth, with just five contracts, largely in the commercial market. It has been particularly busy in the South West recently, which has pushed it from sixth place to second in the regional table.

May Gurney was the highest-placed of February’s nine new entrants, in ninth position. It secured £50m of work with Network Rail in East Anglia, and a further £19m in Newcastle.

Galliford Try climbed to 10th place from 16th in January, with £76m of forward orders. Its largest scheme was Nottingham’s £37m Lark Hill Retirement Village, which will be built on the edge of the Clifton area of the city.