Balfour boss to quit

British engineering group Balfour Beatty today said its chief executive was stepping down as it posted a 33% rise in underlying interim pre-tax profits to £68m (€83m).

London-based Balfour said Mike Welton would retire from the company and resign from the board at the end of 2004.

The company’s chief operating officer since July 2002, chartered accountant Ian Tyler, 44, will replace Mr Welton, Balfour said.

Mr Welton, who has been with Balfour for more than 20 years and has held his current post for eight and a half years, said he felt “the time was right” to hand over the reins to Mr Tyler.

“It has been a privilege to lead this company and I am confident that under his leadership, it will continue to deliver the reliable, responsible growth in shareholder value that we have achieved in recent years,” he said.

Chairman David John said Balfour had gone from being a traditional contractor with sales of £1.7bn (€2.5bn) to a broadly based engineering, construction and services company, with expected sales of close to £4.5bn (€6.7bn) under Mr Welton’s leadership.

“Mike Welton has been an outstanding leader of this company and will leave with the board’s sincere thanks and very good wishes,” Mr John said.

Balfour said its results in the half year to June 26 reflected “significant underlying profit growth”.

While pre-tax profits after goodwill and one-off items increased by 45% to £61m (€91m), the group’s order book rose by 12% to £6.5bn (€9.7bn).