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Balfour Beatty seeing little effect from Brexit so far

Published: 07:59 17 Aug 2016 BST

two rail workers on a railway line
Balfour Beatty builds and develops infrastructure projects

Construction firm Balfour Beatty PLC (LON:BBY) said there has been “little sign of impact” on the firm or its markets following the UK’s decision to exit the European Union.

Balfour said it is still probably too soon to understand what direct impact the vote will have on the company, although it attempted to reassure investors that it was well-positioned regardless of what the long-term implications may be.

“Balfour Beatty is a company which operates across multiple geographies and segments. As such it is less exposed to a downturn in the single market,” the firm said in its half year report.

Elsewhere in its results for the six months to July 1, the firm revealed it is reinstating its dividend and will make an interim payment of 0.9p after significantly reducing its losses year-on-year.

Balfour posted a total loss of £11mln in the first half of the year, a vast improvement on the £135mln loss for the same period in 2015.

The firm blamed historic, loss-making contracts as a reason for its recent struggles, although it says more than 80% of these have now been completed and expects improvements to continue as these begin to phase out.

It said its order book was also up by 7% at constant exchange rates (CER) to £12.4bln and also had net cash of £115mln at the end of the period.

Underlying revenues fell by 6% at CER to £4,024mln as a result of what Balfour called a “more disciplined and selective approach” to bidding.

Shares were up 12.8p, or 5.2%, to 257.6p.

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