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Infrastructure company Balfour Beatty swung to a loss in the first half of the year as construction activity was halted by the impact of the pandemic.
For the six months ended 30 June, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £26m, compared with a profit of £63m on-year, while revenue rose to £3.5bn from £3.4bn.
The most significant COVID-19 impact was on its construction services with all geographies affected, the company said. In the UK, sites were closed in Scotland and London, and projects had been put on hold in the aviation sector.
The group order book increased over 20% to £17.5bn.
The company said it expected that full year 2020 average net cash would be in the range of £430-to-£460m.
'On the assumption that the group's chosen markets continue to recover as currently anticipated, Balfour Beatty expects the earnings-based businesses to recover steadily through the second half of 2020 and report a more normalised operating profit in 2021, broadly in line with 2019,' the company said.
'The board will look to re-instate the dividend as soon as is appropriate.'
At 8:08am: (LON:BBY) Balfour Beatty PLC share price was -6.7p at 255.1p