BALFOUR Beatty, the infrastructure group, has reported a 7% fall in underlying pre-tax profits as the company continued to face tough conditions in the UK construction sector.
Pre-tax profits fell to £310 million in the year to December 31, 2012, compared with £334m in 2011, as the company took steps to improve efficiencies and reduce its exposure to its traditional construction markets by moving into new sectors and territories.
These measures allowed the company, which worked on a range of Scottish infrastructure projects over the year, to report a 1% rise in orders to £15.3 billion.
That reflected the growing importance of infrastructure projects to the company, which accounted for 63% of its order book by the end of the year.
Revenue including joint ventures and associates fell by 1% to £10.9bn from £11.04bn over the year, and decreased by 4% before the impact of currency acquisitions and acquisitions was taken into account.
Balfour Beatty, which employs around 1500 staff at six sites in Scotland, completed work on Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, St Ambrose School in North Lanarkshire and at the University of Edinburgh in 2012.
Mike Peasland, chief executive officer of the firm's construction services division, said he expects 2013 to be challenging but stated there are reasons to be positive. The firm is in the running to build the new M73/M74/M8 motorway triangle in Scotland, and the new western peripheral route in Aberdeen.
Mr Peasland said: "I would say I can see quite a good pipeline for Scotland, compared with the region of England."
Mr Peasland added that the company has identified investment in power plants as an area of growth.
He said: "We're waiting on things like strike prices and the contracts for differences on these power markets. Government guarantees on the longevity of these price structures is the issue."
Shares closed down 13p, or 4.53%, at 274p.
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