Laing O'Rourke - company profile

Laing O'Rourke - company profile

• Laing O'Rourke company overview
• Latest Laing O'Rourke news
• Latest Laing O'Rourke projects

Company overview

Laing O’Rourke is the largest privately-owned construction group in the UK region with an annual turnover of more than £3bn. This page provides an overview of Laing O'Rourke's construction activities.

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Laing O’Rourke has 27,300 employees. Today, only Balfour Beatty and Carillion are bigger than Laing O’Rourke….and these two are both quoted on the London Stock Exchange.

Ray O’Rourke, the powerhouse chairman who has driven Laing O’Rourke to its present size, has said that he wants to see the group expand further to a turnover of more than £5bn a year.

O’Rourke became a mainstream player when he dived in for the Laing Construction business, put up for sale eight years ago.

Since then Laing O’Rourke has:

• Expanded its operations in the Middle East, India and Australia.
• Taken a leading position on off-site fabrication.
• Established a house-building division.

Tony Douglas recently joined Laing O’Rourke as chief operating officer. The new post means that Douglas is effectively the group’s second in command. He was previously with BAA, a major construction client, and led its ambitious T5 project at Heathrow.

Laing O’Rourke’s ability to recruit Douglas has been seen in the construction industry as something of a coup.

Latest financial results (12 months to 31 March 2007) show a pre-tax profit of £45m, well up on the previous year’s figure of £34m. Only a year earlier, turnover was £2.3bn, giving an indication of the speed at which Laing O’Rourke is growing.

Terminal 5, Heathrow airport, London

Opened in March 2008 and has been one of Europe’s largest construction projects. Laing O’Rourke completed 200 work packages on time and on budget.

Al Raha Beach, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Laing O’Rourke in partnership with Aldar Properties is project managing the construction and delivery of a series of waterside developments. They are designed to house a community of 158,000 people. The project calls for the reclamation of 25m m2 of sand and at its peak will have a workforce of 30,000.