Balfour Beatty is laying ground for a strong recovery

An “increasingly confident” Balfour Beatty made further strides on the recovery trail on Tuesday as the UK’s biggest listed builder put struggling industry rivals in the shade.

The year has been dominated by a crisis at builder and support services firm Carillion as well as profit warnings from fellow builder Interserve, which led to the ousting of bosses at both firms.

But Balfour’s chief executive Leo Quinn has plotted a comeback from its own woes.

Quinn, on a long-term share scheme potentially worth more than £10 million to revive the business, has rebuilt profits and improved risk management since joining three years ago.

The previous regime racked up tens of millions in losses on problem contracts.

The chief executive, who joined fellow business leaders for talks over Brexit with Prime Minister Theresa May this year, said the firm had “laid a solid foundation for long-term profitable growth”.

The shares rose 3p to 275p.

UBS analyst Gregor Kuglitsch said: “Confidence of achieving industry standard margins by the second half of next year is increasing.”