nk1999
10 Aug 2015
RBC Cap From ADVFN:"Analysts at RBC Capital upped their rating for Balfour Beatty, and said the company was through the worst.RBC Capital moved the construction firm's rating to 'outperform' from 'sector perform' and lifted its price target to 300p from 200p.In a note RBC Capital analyst Olivia Peters said after seven profit warnings, RBC was turning positive."We upgrade Balfour Beatty to 'outperform' on the basis that we believe risk management and cost cutting will drive profitability," Peters said.Peters said while the issues at the UK business have been highlighted for a long time, most legacy contracts would end in 2016, and RBC would be surprised if the company issued another profit warning."The new management team is reviewing the business and although there is a risk that new problem contracts could emerge we believe that they can be contained," Peters said.RBC forecast Balfour Beatty's earnings before interest, tax and amortisation to improve by ?273m between 2014-2017E, generating an EBITA margin of 2.4% 2017E."
Jack Diamonds
06 Aug 2015
Re: Surpise, surprise and 1 month later, the SP is up 10% at 240p. We bought in at 180p when Leo Quinn's arrival was announced from QQ.With a "Self help" strategy to turn this business around, and sort out the "legacy" issues, we can give a little more time than the 9 months to-date.Happy with the progress so far, and with rumors of Chinese interest, more than happy to hold.JackBalfour Beatty has issued another profit warning, with pre-tax profit likely to be lower by between £120m to £150m due to problems discovered in various parts of the infrastructure construction group as part of a continuing business review.The troubled FTSE 250 outfit, which has reported six profits warnings over the past two years, said "legacy issues" had been discovered in its UK, US and Middle East businesses, with two-thirds of the profit shortfall stemming from the UK.Read more: Chinese construction giant said to be eyeing up Balfour Beatty"The issues we are working through are as I set out in March and legacy challenges remain," said chief executive Leo Quinn. "However, we are making encouraging progress on the group's transformation. The positive response of our people to change, the continuing confidence of our customers in Balfour Beatty's expertise and the first signs of improving cash performance reinforce my conviction in the group's long-term success."On the upside, good progress was said to have been made against the £100m cost reduction programme.Quinn's transformation programme has seen new project disciplines and financial controls embedded into company culture via a new senior leadership team that is now mostly in place.Helped by this new discipline, net cash is expected to exceed £200m at the half year end, which Quinn said demonstrated the group's ability to maintain balance sheet strength through self-help.In March, Balfour's troubles in its UK construction business forced it to suspend its dividend, with a £304m pre-tax loss reported for 2014 and negative operating cash flow of £372m. The group slumped to a total loss of £59m in 2014 on revenue of £8.4bn.At the time, Balfour wrote down further £118m on problem contracts in UK construction as its auditors found out that the firm undertook low margin contracts and then managed them poorly.The market was not impressed, with the shares tanking in the first few minutes after the stock market opened before rebounding to be down 3.5% to 220.4p by 08:25 on Thursday.- See more at: [link]
Alan Tittymarsh
09 Jul 2015
Surpise, surprise Yet another profits warning. The 7th in succession. [link]
Jack Diamonds
08 Jun 2015
Re: construction news comment Sunday Times article suggests interest at £2Bn[link] £3 will be here sooner than I thought.....
nk1999
08 Jun 2015
Re: construction news comment There was also a menio in weekend press about potential bid from China. The price mentined was about £2bn (around 290 per share).A separate report also mentioned that PPP assets of BBY were undervalued at the moment.All looking good after a long long time.nk
rhinocratic oath
08 Jun 2015
Re: construction news comment Here's a link from City A.M.:[link]
dazedandconfused
08 Jun 2015
construction news comment Can't copy it across, but there's chatter this weekend on the NCE/CN website/emails about a Chinese construction company eyeing up a UK acquisition, potentially BB. This seems to come and go, as i've seen it before at the time of the Carillion 'bid', but no doubt they will be noting the European companies moving into the UK market for the big infrastructure opportunities, and thinking they might get a slice of the pie?
nk1999
06 Jun 2015
Liberum From Citywire yesterday:"Don’t overlook Balfour’s PPP portfolio, says LiberumInfrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BALF) has published details of the valuation of its public private partnership (PPP) assets, which Liberum believes is still attractive.Liberum analyst Sebastian Jory retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 285p on the shares, which fell 0.9% to 247.4p yesterday.‘Balfour has published the details behind the directors’ £1.3 billion valuations of their PPP, with a 7.8% and 8.1% discount rate in the UK and US,’ he said.‘For December 2014, this was revised up for three main reasons; reduced discount rates, improved cash flow and revised macro assumptions. For us the two key features of the cash flow are that [they] remain strong for a long time and there is significant investment.‘We continue to believe that the PPP portfolio is an attractive asset and we also believe that analysts are wrong to attribute no value to the pipeline given the £300 million investment over the next five years.’ "
nk1999
02 Jun 2015
Numis From Citywire yesterday:"Numis eyes Balfour Beatty’s jewel in the crownNumis analyst Howard Seymour has raised his target price for Balfour Beatty (BALF) to 290p from 230p having looked at the troubled infrastructure group’s investments business.Seymour describes the investments division as Balfour's ‘jewel in the crown’, saying it is worth around 70% of the firm’s £1.8 billion market value.Balfour is embarked on a two-year recovery programme under its new chief executive Leo Quinn, who scrapped the final dividend and cancelled a share buy back after the firm’s construction arm racked up losses of more than £300 million last year.The investments division, which specialises in PPP (public private partnerships), has quadrupled in value since 2007 and has more potential to grow, says Seymour. ‘We expect that the PPP market will continue to grow, though we believe much of the growth is likely to be from overseas markets such as the US, which offer strong prospects and play to the strengths of Balfour's integrated model,’ he said.Seymour has an ‘add’ rating on Balfour. The shares dipped 7p to just over 252p on Friday. They have risen 19% this year but are down 9% over three years."nk
nk1999
29 May 2015
Re: Berenberg JD,Personally I am hoping for a recovery to around 300p over the next 12 months, hopefully earlier.Let us see.DYOR etc.nk
Jack Diamonds
29 May 2015
Re: Berenberg nk1999............Berenberg was right "Berenberg analyst Chris Moore reiterated his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 260p on the shares, which inched a penny higher to 233.8p yesterday."The shares hit 263p a few days ago, so I reckon they need a more longer term target............I suppose they did caveat their comments with "He added that Balfour was ‘fixable’ and that new chief executive Leo Quinn had ‘made a promising start and there is significant upside if the turnaround is successful, which we expect’.""Should of added reiterated his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 300 to 350p within 12 months !!
dazedandconfused
15 May 2015
RNS yesterday Disappointing - they were hardly going to issue an AGM statement saying they weren't making progress...now were they!?
nk1999
08 Apr 2015
Berenberg From Citywire:"Balfour Beatty turnaround offers significant upsideInfrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BALF) is expected to turn around under the new chief executive, providing significant upside.Berenberg analyst Chris Moore reiterated his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 260p on the shares, which inched a penny higher to 233.8p yesterday.‘We continue to view Balfour positively, with the most upside potential in our construction contractor universe,’ he said.‘However, following the c.55% recovery in the share price from the October lows, we also highlight that risks remain. Recovering profitability is mainly dependent on improving the internal risk management process, not just cost savings.’He added that Balfour was ‘fixable’ and that new chief executive Leo Quinn had ‘made a promising start and there is significant upside if the turnaround is successful, which we expect’."
Didledum
02 Apr 2015
Magrath sold shares Duncan Magrath sold BB shares because he was effectively sacked - just like Marshall. Both were replaced by Leo Quinn. The new Financial Director will start soon
dazedandconfused
25 Mar 2015
Re: Line in the sand.......... I can't even drive through a ford without stalling...
