Balfour Beatty returns to annual profit

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March 16 (Reuters) - Balfour Beatty (Other OTC: BAFBF - news) on Thursday

said it returned to annual profit on the back of strong growth

in its U.S. construction division and an improved performance

from its British business in the second half.

The company reported pretax profit from continuing

operations before one-off items of 60 million pounds ($74

million) for the year to Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 31, marking a rebound from a loss

of 123 million a year earlier.

Balfour has spent two years overhauling its operations after

losses at its construction division in Britain led to multiple

profit warnings. The company had to scrap its 2015 dividend,

cancel a share buy back and reorganise pension payments. The

group reinstated its dividend last summer.

"Having simplified the group, we are focused on our core

markets in the UK and US, where governments are committed to

large scale expenditure on infrastructure," Chief Executive Leo

Quinn said in a statement.

Balfour said on Thursday it had reached its target of

achieving practical completion on 90 percent of its

"challenging" contracts by the end of 2016.

Its order book from continuing operations at constant

exchange rates rose 15 percent to 12.7 billion pounds.

Following the reinstatement of the dividend, the company

said it recommended a final dividend of 1.8 pence per share.

$1 = 0.8143 pounds)

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely

and Jane Merriman)