Balfour, Carillion Win U.K. Contracts, Telenor Launches Stock Repurchase

Sarla Buch
17 Jul, 2017
New York City

Balfour Beatty

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Balfour Beatty’s subsidiary VINCI won two rail contracts worth about £2.5 billion for High Speed 2 and the troubled Carillion secured HS2 contract worth about £1.4 billion. Telenor lifted outlook and plans to launch share buyback. Weir lifted fiscal 2017 revenues and profit forecast.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index gained 24.93 or 0.3% to 7,403.32 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 48.60 or 0.4% to 12,583.12.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slid 5.77 to 5,229.54.

Balfour Beatty Plc advanced 3.1% to 271 pence after the U.K.-based infrastructure developer’s subsidiary VINCI won two contracts worth about £2.5 billion for High Speed 2, the proposed high-speed railway links London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester.

Today the U.K. transport department awarded contracts worth $8.6 billion to build a new high-speed rail network and construction work scheduled to start in 2018-2019.

Carillion Plc surged 18.1% to 68.75 pence after the U.K.-based construction services provider won two major rail contracts worth about £1.4 billion to build 2 sections of high-speed rail lines of 190 kilometer between London to Birmingham.

Telenor ASA soared 8.5% to 154.60 Norwegian kroner after Norway-based wireless communication services provider said revenues in the first-half ending in June fell 0.8% from a year ago to 61.9 billion krone.

Net in the period swung to a loss of 167 million kroner from profit of 1.1 billion krone.

Telenor lifted fiscal 2017 operating profit margin in the range of 38% to 39% from the earlier estimate of 37% and revenue growth in the range of 1% to 2%.

The telecom provider plans to buy back up to 30 million shares or 2% of issued shares.

Weir Group Plc jumped 6.8% to 1,948 pence after the U.K.-based engineering equipment provider lifted fiscal 2017 forecast after accelerated recovery in the North American oil and gas markets.

Weir said growth is likely to be partially offset by one-time charges to operating profit of £13 million related to legacy contract delivery challenges in the Gabbioneta unit.

Worldline SA traded unchanged at €33.90 after France-based payments and transactional services provider agreed to acquire online global payment services provider Digital River World Payments.

The transaction is expected to close on or before the end of third-quarter of this year.