Balfour Beatty has announced a 24% increase in pre-tax profit in 2008, up from £201m to £249m

Total turnover, which included its share of joint ventures, was up 27% from £7.5bn to £9.5bn and the order book stood at £12.8bn. Steve Marshall, Balfour’s chairman, said: “Most of our work is with public sector and regulated customers who are long-term investors in infrastructure. Although the difficult economic environment will have some impact on our businesses, we anticipate making progress in 2009.”