No 'material' impact from government cuts - Carillion

7th Jul 2010 07:16

Carillion said the coalition government's cuts on the Building Schools for the Future programme will not have a "material impact" on the group's orders.It said Carillion is resistant to any potential government cuts in the public sector because only £0.5bn of its £19.7bn order book is expected to relate to probable orders from the public sector."We anticipate that the UK Government's recent announcement concerning the Building Schools for the Future programme will not have a material impact on the Group's order book and probable orders," it said."Furthermore, the cuts in UK public expenditure announced in the UK Government's Emergency Budget on 22 June 2010 are in line with our plans for reducing the size of our UK construction business and have the potential to create opportunities for our largest business, support services, over the medium term," it added.Carillion said in the first six months of 2010, it has continued to perform well despite market conditions remaining challenging. Underlying earnings per share are expected to increase, offsetting the effects of disposing of two non-core businesses - Enviros and IT services - and the sale of four investments in Public Private Partnership projects in 2009."We continue to expect market conditions to remain challenging. However, we have a resilient and well balanced business in the UK and internationally with strong revenue visibility and good positions in our market sectors. We remain on track to make further progress in the second half of 2010 in line with market expectations," said the group.