Investors in Carillion (CLLN) received some respite this week, after its joint venture with Kier (KIE) and French civil engineering group Eiffage secured around £1.3bn of new work to build the government’s controversial HS2 railway link. The partnership has won design and build contracts for the £724m North Portal Chiltern Tunnels to Brackley and Brackley to Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel South Portal.
Having recently fallen dramatically following news of an £845m provision, suspension of the dividend and departure of the chief executive, the share price jumped more than a fifth after Carillion announced it had been awarded work on the high-speed rail link.
Other companies in the public domain to benefit from the £6.6bn of contracts up for grabs include Costain (COST), whose shares rose 5 per cent. It was awarded almost £2bn of work with its joint venture partners Skanska Construction of Sweden and Strabag of Austria for tunnels and approaches to Euston station and for tunnels in north-west London. Balfour Beatty (BBY) was another winner, securing £2.5bn of work, as part of a joint venture with three subsidiaries of French construction company Vinci.
As well as the work on a route between London and Birmingham, the government also confirmed plans to extend HS2 further to include lines from Birmingham to Sheffield, Leeds, Crewe and Manchester.
