Carillion remains on course

UK contractor Carillion is claiming a first-half financial performance that was in line with expectations, saying that strong first-half revenue growth had reflected the exceptional volume of new contracts won in 2014.

It reported that underlying profit and earnings grew strongly, despite substantial costs of mobilising new contracts and the expected effect of the margin in construction services – excluding the Middle East – on a downward trend towards “a more normal level”.

Carillion said that it had a strong, high-quality order book and growing pipeline of contract opportunities, with new first-half orders plus probable orders of £1.0 billion (€1.4 billion). This compared to £3.2 billion (€4.4 billion) for the same period of 2014, which the company said reflected the expected pause in public sector contract awards as a result of the UK General Election.

It said that total secure orders plus probable orders remained strong at £17.1 billion (€23.3 billion) at 30 June, 2015, compared to a figure at 31 December, 2014, of £18.6 billion (€25.4 billion), after removing £200 million (€273 million) from the order book through PPP equity sales.