Construction group Balfour Beatty has said it will repay furlough money it got during the virus crisis, as it looks to post-pandemic growth.
The FTSE 250 firm, which will be involved in the building of the HS2 project, will repay the £19 million it has claimed under the government’s job retention scheme. It gave the update alongside results for 2020.
During the year its UK construction division recorded an underlying loss as the group grappled with Covid-19 disruption, including site closures, lower productivity and extra operating costs.
The company posted a group pretax profit of £48 million, down from £138 million, but revenues, including from joint ventures, improved to £8.6 billion from £8.4 billion.
Balfour Beatty ended the year with a order book of £16.4 billion, up 15%, with new contracts in the UK and Hong Kong.
BalfourBeatty, led by Leo Quinn, said: “For 2022 and beyond, the strengthof the group’s order book and positive infrastructure markets createsthe capacity to drive profitable managed growth and sustainable cashgeneration.”
Elsewhere in the construction sector today, Ibstock, a manufacturer of clay bricks and concrete products, said revenue dropped 23% to £316 million last year. It was hit at the start of the pandemic as its housebuilding customers temporarily closed sites during the first lockdown,
At construction materials group Breedon, 2020 revenues were flat. But boss Pat Ward said: “With robust commitments from the UK and Irish governments to infrastructure investment and continuing long-term demand for housing, forecasters are expecting this year and next to see steady growth in demand for our products in both countries.”
