PFI specialist John Laing said a rights issue and disposals in the secondary market had led to a rise in profit of 43% to £36m in 2005.

The firm said that the extra capital had helped to boost pre-tax profit to £36m and had supported further investments. Group turnover fell from £451m to £408m.

The firm said its roads division had done particularly well and further progress was expected with projects in Finland and Poland reaching financial close.

But it also noted that the performance of Chiltern Railways had been adversely affected by the collapse of building works on a Tesco supermarket at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, which severely disrupted rails services for several weeks.

However, John Laing expected to recover it costs and lost revenues caused by this event.

The group is shortlisted for projects with a total capital value of £5bn with a potential Laing equity commitment of £205m.

The group has six projects at preferred bidder stage to which it will commit £76m of equity.