THE UK's biggest construction firm, Balfour Beatty , has unveiled forecast-beating profits and a record order book worth more than £10bn.

The company said underlying pre-tax profits were 36 per cent higher at £76m for the first half of 2007, ahead of consensus City forecasts of £71m.

Balfour Beatty's order book now stands at a record £10.6bn following fresh project wins and its £184m acquisition of US builder Centex in February. Chief executive Ian Tyler said: "We anticipate further good progress in the second half of the year."

Operating profits for the company's building division increased 76 per cent to £30 million, reflecting a first contribution from Centex, which has just landed four new deals from the US Army totalling $730million.

The London-based company added that the domestic market for public private partnership deals remained "strong", despite writing off £103m from its involvement with the Metronet consortium working on London's Tube network, which went into administration in July.

The firm said: "The London Underground PPP is unique and we do not anticipate any negative impact on the UK PPP market as a whole to arise as a result of Metronet's administration."

Balfour Beatty has reached financial close on £350m of other PPP deals during the first half, with "major opportunities" in the pipeline in transport, healthcare and education, through the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme.

The company's civil engineering business increased operating profits by 30 per cent to £26m following a £550m deal to upgrade electricity networks in eastern England, as well as a new engineering contract with Yorkshire Water.

The recovery of the firm's rail business also continued after higher levels of renewals work for Network Rail, with further major opportunities eyed in Birmingham and Reading after the Government unveiled plans to invest £10bn in rail enhancements between 2009 and 2014 in last month's White Paper. Tweet