Engineer’s results boosted by big nuclear sector wins

Trawsfyndd in Snowdonia

Source: Jim Killock

Engineering giant Babcock has reported a 29% jump in pre-tax profit.

In its results for the six months to the end of September 2014, the group reported pre-tax profit of £137m, up from £106m over the same period last year.

The group also reported a rise in revenue to £1.9bn, up from £1.6bn.

The rise in revenue was helped by growth in its support services division, which does much of the firm’s work in the construction market, that reported a 5% rise in revenue to £470m, up from £448m.

It also reported a 4% rise in operating profit to £33m from £32m.

It said its nuclear division Cavendish Nuclear, which sits within its support services arm, had performed particularly well with a 26% increase in revenue.

Big wins for Cavendish over the six month period included winning a contract to run the £7bn Magnox (pictured) decommissioning programme alongside bid partner Fluor.

Babcock also revealed it had submitted a bid to do the “balance of the nuclear island” work on EDF’s £16bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project and it was expecting a result “soon”.