Contractor wins backing of banking consortium

Contractor Balfour Beatty has agreed a five year £850m credit facility with a consortium of lenders, it revealed today.

The deal gives the £10bn turnover contractor access to almost £1bn of funding for “general corporate purposes”, by re-financing a range of loans with individual lenders that were due to expire in the next year to 15 months.

The consortium of lenders is led by Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole SA and Royal Bank of Canada.

Chief financial officer, Duncan Magrath, said: “We are pleased to have secured this long-term and competitively-priced funding at a challenging time in the financial markets. Our agreed facility is indicative of the strength of the Balfour Beatty business and the confidence our lenders have in us.”