HBG UK and Nuttall: excellent first quarter performance

Royal Bam, the European construction giant based in Holland, has reported a good start to 2008.

In the first quarter of the year, turnover of £1.5bn produced a profit of £71m.

Bam said that its two UK operations – building contractor HBG UK and civils group Nuttall- both produced an “excellent” contribution.

Bam divides its operations into six divisions and the two that contain HBG UK and Nuttall are:

• construction – profit of £26m on turnover of £660m
• civil engineering – profit of £9m on turnover of £600m

The other four BAM divisions are:

• property
• PPP
• M&E contracting
• consultancy

There was a £1.6m profit from PPP division, on turnover running to £14m.

BAM said: “The decline of the British pound has had a negative effect on the results compared with 2007.”

However it added: “Despite the downturn in the private sector, prospects for the British non-residential construction market remain good. There are particularly good prospects in the education and healthcare segments.

“HBG UK won a large number of new contracts in the first quarter of 2008, most of which are for customers in the public sector.”

BAM said that Nuttall’s market was experiencing strong competition and “an increasing complexity of contract forms” The number of Nuttall’s new contracts has been especially large in south-east England and also in Scotland.

A spokesman for Nuttall was unable to offer any further detail to add to the information published in Holland.