Lord Charles Allen takes up post in July

Balfour Beatty said the firm remains on track to match 2019’s underlying profit as it confirmed it has brought in a former TV executive to be its new chairman.

In an update ahead of today’s AGM, the country’s biggest builder said it expected to post an underlying operating profit of £172m this year.

Balfour Beatty

The firm’s average net cash balance in the first four months of this year was £600m

It said its average net cash balance for the first four months of the year was £600m – up from December’s figure of £581m and the £527m average it posted for 2020.

Meanwhile, the firm said former chief executive of ITV Lord Charles Allen had been appointed to be its new chairman.

Allen, who was also an executive chair of EMI Music, starts in July and replaces Philip Aiken who joined in March 2015, two months after chief executive Leo Quinn started, as part of a management rejig at the business following a series of losses on dozens of contracts that sent the firm to a £304m pre-tax loss in 2014.

Balfour Beatty is due to release its interim results on 18 August.

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