Balfour Beatty

Company Profile

Most of Balfour Beatty's controversial projects (including the Cardiff Bay Barrage and all road schemes) are carried out by Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty Ltd., which in turn is owned by BICC Group plc.

M25 Widening

The M25, the crappest of crap roads, is perhaps the paradigm example of traffic induction. Every bigoted truck driver with whom I have hitched knows that no amount of widening will help it. Still, Balfour Beatty has been happy to take on the widening between junctions 8 and 10 near Reigate, due to be completed September 1997. It is rather interesting that neither the Highways Agency nor DoT had traffic forecasts available, nor could they suggest anyone who did. Admittedly the decision was made before the 1994 SACTRA report, but surely £93m would not be spent without first modelling the outcome? Also, Friends of the Earth argue that increasing M25 capacity there is pointless anyway, since the trunk roads leading from it are already at capacity.

BICC Group plc.

Devonshire House, Mayfair Place, London W1X 5PH

Tel. 0171 629 6622 / Fax 0171 409

Turnover: £4.4bn. (1995)

Operating profit/loss: £178m (1994), £150m (1995), £82m (first half 1996). After exceptional items, interest & taxation: £116m (1995), £29m (first half 1996)

Business: engineering, construction, property development, power & communications cables, pipes & tubes, electronic building automation systems, energy (25% share in Barking Power Ltd.)

Directors: Viscount Weir (Chairman)*, A Jones (Chief Executive), Sir Robin Biggam*, Sir Peter Bonfield*, E Clark, M Downie, Sir Robert Davidson*, R Henderson (Finance Director), Lord Howe of Aberavon QC., C Painter, C Reeves*, U Stark*, M Welton, P Zinkin.

[* = non-executive]

Political Links: Lord Howe was a Conservative MP 1964-92, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1979-83, Foreign Secretary 1983-89, Leader of the House of Commons & Deputy Prime Minister 1989-90. BICC has supported Aims of Industry, the Economic League and British United Industrialists.

Investors with over 3% of shares (27/2/96): Franklin Resources Inc. 6%, Capital Group Companies 10.26%

Environmental policy: "Balfour Beatty continues to develop its systems for environmental monitoring... Training on environmental is seen as important in supporting the implementation of these systems. Technology programmes to examine produ0070. Stewardship and life cycle issues are in progress. Environmental principles are incorporated into the Group's purchasing policies...

The Board is satisfied that safety and environmental matters are given appropriate attention by the Group's businesses.

Balfour Beatty Ltd.

One Angel Square, Torrens Street, London ECIV ISX. tel. 0171216 6800, fax 0171216 6950. Turn Over: 1995 - £1.7bn Operating profit: 1994 £43m; 1995 £18m first half 1996 £1m. (before exceptional items i.e. losses for which the company feels it can't be blamed - poor dears! For 1995 it includes losses from the collapse of the Heathrow Express tunnel in late 1994 (BB Civil Eng.), with the BB Ltd. (Plant Division) - Derby. and from the sell-off of Clarke Homes Ltd.) Directors: MW Welton (Chief Executive), track renewal units. BB Building - Knotingley (W. Yorks.), HM Bedelian, PJ Mason. Aberdeen, Shons (Strathclyde). Employees: 16,115. encouraging. The group will seek further Balfour Kilpatrick Ltd. (cables) - Erith (1< Notes: BB Construction Ltd. has been a member of the British Roads Federation (BRF)since at least 1989. Warwick Evans, a director of BB Civil Engineering Ltd., was a memberof the BRF Board of Directors 1992-3. [Source: BRF Annual/ Report 1993]. Colin Shepherd MP (Con., Hereford) is registered as a parliamentary advisor to BB Ltd. [Source: A Bit on the Side, 1994 (not sure if still the case)]. BB is suffering from the reduced UK power and civil engineering markets. Building and building services have had a bad year, but are expected to recover slowly. Maintenance and facilities management have been successful. Railway engineering is picking up, with the acquisition from BR of 3 maintenance and track renewal units.

"The UK market outlook for 1996 is not - expansion overseas was" - Michael Welton BB currently has 50% of sales outside the UK (it was 25% at start of 1995). This includes Indonesia, Malaysia (incl. the Pergau Dam), Watch) Dubai, Lesotho (£260m HEP dam), Singapore,

Hong Kong and USA (incl. several road schemes). BB Construction Intemational is based at Sidcup, Kent. Offices: BB Construction Ltd. - Walton-onThames (Surrey), Lichfield (Staffs.), Wythenshawe (nr. Manchester), Newcastleupon-Tyne, Edinburgh. BB Projects & Engineering Ltd. - Sidcup (Kent), Exeter, Bristol. Wallington (Surrey), Birmingham, Renfr'ber (Strathclyde).See Who O~vns Whom for other subsidiariacquisition from BR of 3 maintenance and BB Power Construction Ltd. - Kirby. - Look in the phone book! (or call Corpor

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd.

7 Mayday Road, Thomton Heath, Surrey Other addresses: 14 Ack Lane East, Bramhall, CR7 7XA. Cheshire SK7 2BY. tel. 0181684 6922, fax 0181 710 5151. tel. 0161440 0700, fax 0161439 7511. Dire~: HM Bedelian (Managing Director), Randolph House, 4648 Wellesley Road, WE Clifford, WA Evans, DG Fison, Croydon, Surrey CR9 3QD. AW Merricks, AE Rose, PJ Steckelmacher, tel. 0181 686 8700. fax 0181 686 3854. MW Welton.

Balfour Beatty was ranked the UK's largest trunk roads contractor in financial year 1992-3, 2nd largest in 1993-4. It won the biggest single road scheme each year: the £65m Second Sevem Crossing and the £71m A13 Thames Avenue/Wenninton respectively