IN Brief:
- Balfour Beatty raised 2026 earnings guidance after first-half underlying profit from operations reached £119m.
- Support Services profit rose to £66m, driven by strong UK power transmission activity.
- The group entered the second half with a £22.9bn order book and higher average net cash guidance.
Balfour Beatty has raised its expectations for 2026 after first-half profit growth across its earnings-based businesses, with UK power transmission and US building activity among the principal drivers. Group revenue increased to £5.56bn for the six months, from £5.15bn in the comparable period, while total underlying profit from operations rose to £119m from £77m.
The improvement was stronger across the earnings-based businesses, where revenue reached £5.27bn and underlying profit from operations increased to £153m from £108m. That lifted the operating margin from 2.2% to 2.9%, prompting Balfour Beatty to increase its full-year earnings guidance from high-single-digit growth to low-double-digit growth.
UK Construction generated revenue of £1.57bn and underlying profit from operations of £54m. Its margin eased slightly to 3.4% from 3.6%, while the US Construction operation returned to profit, producing £22m from revenue of £2.48bn compared with an £11m loss in the first half of 2025.
Support Services recorded one of the clearest improvements. Revenue increased to £727m and underlying profit from operations rose to £66m from £46m, with Balfour Beatty identifying strong activity in UK power transmission as an important contributor.
The results put firmer numbers behind a transmission market that has been expanding rapidly as National Grid, SSEN Transmission, and ScottishPower increase capital spending on network reinforcement. Balfour Beatty has already built a substantial design and construction pipeline around that investment, and the first-half figures show part of that workload feeding through into recognised revenue and profit.
The group entered the second half with a £22.9bn order book, compared with £22.7bn at the end of 2025 and £19.5bn a year earlier. That gives the contractor considerable forward visibility, although the value of the pipeline will depend on maintaining margin discipline as large infrastructure programmes move from design and procurement into delivery.
Balfour Beatty previously identified a substantial UK transmission pipeline, including schemes in development for National Grid, SSEN Transmission, and ScottishPower. The latest results show the market becoming an increasingly important part of its operating performance rather than remaining solely a source of future orders.
Transmission work brings a different resource profile from conventional building construction. Programmes require specialist civil engineering, electrical, commissioning, and project-management capability, while simultaneous investment across several network operators puts pressure on a relatively concentrated contractor and supplier base.
That pressure will become more visible as projects overlap. Large substations, overhead line works, underground cable packages, access infrastructure, and associated civils can draw on many of the same engineering disciplines, plant, materials, and subcontractors. An enlarged order book therefore provides opportunity and capacity risk in roughly equal measure.
Balfour Beatty’s balance sheet gives it substantial room to manage that expansion. Average net cash during the first half was £1.62bn, compared with £1.21bn for the 2025 financial year, and the group has increased its full-year average net cash guidance by £200m to between £1.5bn and £1.7bn.
Expected net finance income has also been increased to between £35m and £40m. The interim dividend rose to 4.7p per share from 4.2p, while £102m of the current share-buyback programme had been completed during the first half.
The combination of stronger cash generation and a large secured pipeline gives management greater flexibility over investment and project selection, but construction margins remain sensitive to execution. Rapid revenue growth can become expensive if tender assumptions, labour availability, design changes, or supply constraints move against a contractor after work has been secured.
That makes the mix of work as significant as the overall order-book number. Infrastructure programmes backed by regulated utilities and long-term public investment can provide greater visibility than shorter commercial cycles, but they also bring complex interfaces and delivery obligations stretching across several years.
Balfour Beatty now enters the second half with higher profit expectations, stronger cash guidance, and an order book almost £3.5bn larger than a year earlier. UK transmission is already contributing to that performance; the next measure will be how efficiently the expanding grid programme can be converted into completed work.
