Balfour Beatty (BBY) chief executive Leo Quinn has bought shares worth £0.5m in the construction group. The purchase came two weeks after the group revealed that disruption caused by the pandemic forced it into a pre-tax loss over the first six months of the year.
Around 27 per cent of UK construction sites and 11 per cent of those in the US were closed in April, which combined with a reduction in productivity and the cost of implementing new safe working procedures led to a marked drop in the operating margin in the first half of the year. In addition, Covid-19 has led to lengthened site programmes that have triggered a reassessment of the contract completion times, which has also contributed to the decrease in margins in the half year.
However, around 95 per cent of US and UK construction sites had reopened at the end of June and, if the recovery continues throughout the remainder of the year, management expects 2021 operating profits to be broadly in line with 2019. However, while Balfour’s order book stood 20 per cent ahead of the same time last year, there are signs the strong recovery in demand may begin to wane.
The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index registered 54.6 in August, and while any reading above 50 indicates growth in construction output, it was down from a near five-year high of 58.1 in July. Survey respondents mostly suggested that a lack of new work to replace completed contracts had acted as a brake on the speed of expansion.
Buys | ||||||
Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
Photo-Me International | Serge Crasnianski (ceo) | 02 Sep 20 | 500,000 | 50 | 250,000 | Purchased by PCA |
Balfour Beatty | Leo Quinn (ceo) | 02 Sep 20 | 226,127 | 221 | 500,002 | |
Fulcrum Utility Services | Jonathan Turner | 02 Sep 20 | 150,000 | 32.1 | 48,150 | Purchased by PCA |
Fulcrum Utility Services | Jonathan Turner | 03 Sep 20 | 125,000 | 32 | 40,000 | Purchased by PCA |
Fulcrum Utility Services | Jonathan Turner | 03 Sep 20 | 46,456 | 32 | 14,866 | Purchased by PCA |
Benchmark Holdings | Trond Williksen (ceo) | 02-03 Sep 20 | 180,000 | 46 | 82,800 | |
Abbey | Charles Gallagher (ch) | 03 Sep 20 | 107,704 | 1,575 | 1,696,339 | Purchased by PCA |
Fuller, Smith & Turner | Robin Rowland | 04 Sep 20 | 3,551 | 560 | 19,886 | Purchased by PCA |
Ninety One | Hendrik du Toit/Kim McFarland | 04 Sep 20 | 49,261 | 213.39 | 105,118 | Purchased by PCA |
Ryanair | Michael O'Leary (ceo) | 04 Sep 20 | 1,409,691 | 1,029 | 14,500,646 | Converted from €, purchased by PCA |
Ryanair | Howard Millar | 04 Sep 20 | 15,000 | 1,029 | 154,296 | Converted from € |
3i | Pieter de Jong | 07 Sep 20 | 40,000 | 894.23 | 357,690 | Purchased by PCA |
Ninety One | Hendrik du Toit/Kim McFarland | 07 Sep 20 | 110,040 | 212.97 | 234,350 | Purchased by PCA |
Sells | ||||||
Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
Randall & Quilter | Alan Quilter (ceo) | 02 Sep 20 | 250,000 | 153 | 382,500 | Residual interest 1.29% |
Renishaw | Daniel John Deer | 07 Sep 20 | 89,900 | 5,042 | 4,532,758 | |
Sage Group | Rob Reid | 07 Sep 20 | 120,000 | 721.03 | 865,236 | |
Creightons | Martin Stevens | 08 Sep 20 | 100,000 | 56 | 56,000 | Sold by PCA |