Balfour investors happy despite loss
SHARES in Balfour Beatty jumped by nearly four per cent yesterday, despite the company reporting a £150m loss.
The rise in share prices will be seen as an endorsement of chief executive Leo Quinn’s performance in turning around the company, after he was poached from QinetiQ last year.
During the financial crisis, Balfour Beatty accepted several contracts offering minimal profits and it has been coping with their legacy ever since, issuing a series of profit warnings over the past two years.
Yesterday’s results, however, revealed that more than 90 per cent of the problem contracts will be completed either practically or financially by 2016.
Quinn said: “The continuing confidence of our customers in Balfour Beatty’s expertise, the positive response of our people to change, demonstrated by our excellent net cash performance, and the underlying strength of our balance sheet, supported by the investments portfolio, all reinforce my conviction that over the medium term we can provide our customers, employees and shareholders with superior returns.”