Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, reports its financial results for the full-year ended 31 December 2013. The Group's income statements have been represented to classify the UK facilities management business and the Mainland European rail businesses in Germany, Scandinavia and Spain as discontinued operations.

Operational Summary
  • Challenging economic conditions and operational issues in UK construction, and a significant downturn in the Australian natural resources sector led to a disappointing financial performance
  • Firm actions taken to improve the operational delivery in UK construction and restructure Australian Professional Services
  • Strong performance in Infrastructure Investments with further investment into growth sectors
  • Continue to expect a positive settlement in the longstanding contract dispute in Professional Services but outcome now expected in 2014
  • Performance elsewhere across the Group's continuing operations was as expected
  • Progress on major strategic actions, including disposals of the UK facilities management business and Mainland European rail operations in Spain and Scandinavia
  • Actions taken in 2013 to re-focus the business leave the Group better positioned for 2014 and the challenges ahead
Financial Summary
  • Underlying pre-tax profits of £187 million (2012: £277 million) and underlying EPS of 20.0 pence (2012: 31.7 pence)
  • Strong US construction order intake offset with increased US construction revenue leaving a stable order book at £13.4 billion (2012: £13.5 billion)  
  • Directors' valuation of the PPP portfolio increased to £766 million (2012: £734 million), after generating disposal gains of £82 million
  • Balance sheet remains strong with new long-term funding sources secured from US private placement and convertible bond issue
  • Full-year dividend maintained at 14.1 pence per ordinary share
(£m unless otherwise specified) 2013 20124 Change (%)
Revenue1,2 10,118 9,966 2
Group revenue2 8,745 8,656 1
Profit from operations
- underlying2,3 203 284 (29)
- reported2 48 154 (69)
Pre-tax profit
- underlying2,3 187 277 (32)
- reported2 32 147 (78)
Net loss from discontinued operations (52) (86)
Earnings per share - underlying2,3 20.0p 31.7p (37)
(Loss)/earnings per share - basic (total Group) (5.1)p 5.3p (196)
Dividends per share 14.1p 14.1p -
Financing
- net (borrowings)/cash before PPP subsidiaries (non-recourse) (66) 35
- net borrowings of PPP subsidiaries (non-recourse) (354) (368)

"In 2013 we faced challenging economic conditions in several markets and experienced operational issues in the UK construction business.  The remedial actions taken in underperforming areas are delivering results and have positioned us better for the future. Continuing to improve operational delivery and supply chain management will remain a particular area of focus throughout 2014.

"We are seeing increasing evidence of improving conditions in some parts of our core US and UK markets, although the long cycle nature of our business means that these will take time to feed through fully in our financial performance. Recovery in some parts of our businesses will be largely offset by a reversion to lower PPP investment disposal gains. However, leaving aside the expected benefit from the longstanding contract settlement and the impact of any further adverse foreign exchange movements, we expect to make modest progress in 2014.

"In the longer term, we remain focused on capitalising on growth in global infrastructure markets by leveraging three key strengths: local presence, asset knowledge and our skills as an investor and developer.

Andrew McNaughton, Chief Executive Officer

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