Balfour Beatty scraps dividend as profit widens

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Balfour Beatty (Other OTC: BAFBF - news) has scrapped its interim dividend as pre-tax losses widened in the first half of 2015. The construction firm posted a first-half pre-tax loss of £150m, two and a half times the size of the £58m the year before, although it said this was in line with its expectations.

The company held back from paying an interim dividend, having paid out 5.6p per share the year before.

Balfour admitted it had struggled the over the past few years after entering contracts which were ultimately unprofitable, but it now said 90% of those contracts were expected to be completed or settled by the end of 2016.

The company posted stable revenue of £4.19bn from £4.22bn.

Chief executive Leo Quinn said in a statement in rising core markets the group continued to win business on better terms.

"Inevitably the headline numbers set out the consequences of the historic issues that are now being tackled," Quinn said.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the company fell by 3.06% to 244p at 0813 BST.