Pre-tax profits at Balfour Beatty fell more than 40 per cent to £39 million in the six months to the end of July, knocked by a £17 million one-off cost relating to an acquisition.
However the group gained £2 million after a reduction in its fine for the 2000 Hatfield Rail crash and pre-tax profits before excxeptional items grew 15 per cent to £60 million.
The interim dividend per share was raised from 3.5p to 3.9p.
The company, which is helping build Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and has been refurbishing London Underground’s Waterloo and City line, said its order book at July 1 was up 19 per cent on the same period last year to a record £8.8 billion.
The company grew first half revenues from £2.3 billion to £2.7 billion and said the outlook was positive after a string of major road building contracts in Hong Kong, the United States and Dubai.
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Strong profits growth in civil engineering and building divisions was partly offset by a fall in profits at its rail engineering unit, where profits fell from £20 million in 2005 to £11 million, amid lower levels of contracting by Network Rail, the UK rail infrastructure owner.
Last month the group had a record £10 million fine imposed on the group in the wake of the Hatfield rail disaster cut to £7.5 million by the Court of Appeal.