Balfour Beatty's orderbook hits £13.7bn

Balfour Beatty has reported strong performance in the UK and revealed that its confirmed order book now stands at £13.7bn.

In a trading update the firm said its financial position remained strong, with average net cash of £260m.

However, with spending down its rail, utility and ground engineering businesses have suffered.

It said contract wins for schools and academies in Hull, Lincolnshire, Stoke-on-Trent and West Sussex has driven good UK construction performance. Although this was tempered by a reduced volume of work in its regional construction businesses.

Despite its ground engineering business suffering, it reported its civil engineering was performing well, driven by road projects including the M25.

Both its utility and rail businesses have been affected by a reduction in volumes, but it does anticipate new orders ahead of the AMP5 utility spending period. In response to the poor rail performance it has restructured its UK rail and mechanical and electrical businesses, following the restructure of its highways maintenance business earlier in the year.

Following the £380m acquisition of Parsons Brinkerhoff, the company has set up an integration team bring it into Balfour Beatty. It added that it didn't expect the business to have a significant effect on the 2009 results, other than cash flow.