Balfour Beatty PLC on Wednesday reported lower annual profit but higher revenue, raised its dividend, and said strong order book visibility underpins its outlook for 2025 and 2026.
The London-based infrastructure and construction firm said pretax profit for 2024 fell 12% to £214 million from £244 million in 2023, impacted by a £49 million non-underlying charge, including costs related to the UK Building Safety Act.
Underlying profit before tax rose 11% to £289 million from £261 million, supported by growth in its core earnings-based businesses.
Revenue increased 4.4% to £10.02 billion from £9.60 billion, with growth driven by its UK energy, transport, and defence divisions, as well as its US buildings business.
Balfour Beatty raised its total dividend by 9% to 12.5 pence per share from 11.5p. It also announced a £125 million share buyback for 2025, bringing its total expected cash return to shareholders this year to £188 million.
Chief Executive Leo Quinn said: ‘The board continues to have confidence in Balfour Beatty’s ongoing ability to deliver sustainable cash generation for significant shareholder returns, as evidenced by our announcement of increased dividends and share buybacks for 2025.’
The company’s order book increased by 12% to £18.4 billion from £16.5 billion in 2023. Looking ahead, the company said it expects further profitable growth from earnings-based businesses for 2025 and 2026.
Shares in Balfour Beatty were up 4.2% at 452.00 pence in London on Wednesday morning.
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