Balfour Net Jumps 29% on Electricity, Housing Orders

Balfour Beatty Plc, the U.K.'s biggest construction company, said second-half profit jumped 29 percent after it won contracts to relay electricity lines and upgrade government-funded housing, reported Bloomberg.

Net income was 63 million pounds ($121.6 million), or 14.5 pence a share, compared with 49 million pounds, or 11.5 pence. Sales at London-based Balfour rose 17 percent to 3.1 billion pounds.

National Grid Plc plans to invest 12 billion pounds to overhaul Britain's power lines, providing Balfour with some of its most profitable contracts. The U.K. government's Decent Homes program to upgrade 5.2 million units by 2010 is also generating orders. Dallas-based building unit Centex Construction, the biggest U.S. builder of military housing, won a $525 million contract to construct homes for the U.S. Navy, Balfour said.

``We expect to continue on the same growth trajectory this year,'' Chief Executive Officer Ian Tyler, 46, said in an interview. ``Centex will enhance our earnings. We have made progress with our strategy to develop regionally, which produces a steady flow of activity.''

Shares of Balfour Beatty rose as much as 15.5 pence, or 3.4 percent, to 469 pence, and traded at 459.75 pence as of 8:36 a.m. in London. The stock has gained 22 percent in the last six months, giving a market value of 2 billion pounds. That compares with a 15 percent rise in the FTSE 250 Index of middle-ranking U.K. companies.

Centex, acquired in February for $362 million, will help build 2,100 housing units for the navy at eleven bases in five states in one of the biggest orders of its kind. Work will begin in November this year and last for five years, Balfour said.

Full-year net income at Balfour fell 14 percent to 91 million pounds, or 21 pence a share, from 106 million pounds, or 24.7 pence, a year earlier the company said in a statement today. Sales rose 18 percent to 5.85 billion pounds.

Balfour incurred one-time costs in the full-year of 25 million pounds related to the reorganization of a Pennsylvania- based unit bought in 2001 and Birse Group Plc acquired last year. The order backlog jumped 20.1 percent, bolstered by work to build maintain and run schools and hospitals in England and Scotland.

Full-year sales excluding the contribution from joint ventures rose 17 percent to 4.49 billion pounds. Analysts had estimated net income of 106.1 million pounds on revenue, not including joint ventures, of 4.36 billion pounds.