15baromddnj 15/4/09 12:51 Page 16 16 / finance A hat-trick of hospital wins takes BAM to the top in March Business barometer Dutch firm beats Vinci to first place as total volume of work falls 23% on 2008 By Tom Bill TOP CONTRACTORS EXCLUDING CIVILS TOP CONTRACTORS INCLUDING CIVILS monthly work won, 1–31 March 2009 monthly work won, 1–31 March 2009 For the second March running, BAM Construct has topped the leader board for Number of Total Number of Total contract wins. projects value (£m) projects value (£m) Last year, under its former name HBG, the 1 10 BAM Construct 6 209 1 – Morrison Utility Services 6 617 Dutch-owned contractor won 12 jobs worth 2 11 Vinci Construction 11 195 2 4 Balfour Beatty 78 610 3 4 Balfour Beatty 54 149 3 6 Morgan Sindall 32 592 £254m. This time round it bagged six worth 4 12 Morgan Sindall 31 92 4 14 BAM Construct 6 209 £209m – an 18% drop. 5 6 Laing O’Rourke 2 92 5 13 Vinci Construction 12 197 It won a hat-trick of hospital schemes, 6 – Apollo Group 20 89 6 2 Carillion 11 128 7 5 Kier 14 82 7 9 Laing O’Rourke 2 92 including the £150m Royal Hospital for Sick 8 14 ISG 18 70 8 – Apollo Group 20 89 Children for NHS Lothian, a £24m deal for the 9 7 Willmott Dixon 15 43 9 7 Kier 14 82 Freeman hospital in Newcastle and a £20m 10 – Winvic Construction 3 42 10 12 Costain 3 73 11 9 Galliford Try 11 41 11 8 Galliford Try 16 71 job for the Chelsea and Westminster hospital. 12 18 Interserve Projects 12 39 12 16 ISG 18 70 The combined value of the schemes won by 13 3 Wates 23 35 13 – North Midland 10 45 the top 30 contractors was £1.46bn, or 23% 14 13 Rok 26 28 14 10 Willmott Dixon 15 43 15 – Buckingham Group 1 26 15 – Winvic Construction 3 42 less than the same month in 2008. It’s a 16 – Bowmer & Kirkland 8 25 16 22 Interserve Projects 13 39 slightly worrying statistic when you consider 17 – Eric Wright 11 22 17 – Eric Wright 29 38 that the downturn had already started to bite 18 8 Leadbitter 7 20 18 5 Wates 23 35 19 – Drew Smith 5 18 19 15 Rok 32 33 by March last year. This year’s figure is down 20 – Rydon 5 16 20 – Buckingham Group 4 29 by a third on the same month in 2007. 21 – North Midland 9 14 21 19 Skanska 11 28 The figures also show the increased 22 – Dawnus 2 14 22 21 Bowmer & Kirkland 8 25 23 20 Fitzpatrick 2 14 23 1 Amey 3 23 importance of infrastructure work. In 2007 24 35 SDC Construction 2 13 24 11 Leadbitter 7 20 the value of work won that included civils 25 2 Carillion 9 13 25 28 C Spencer 2 19 (see table second right) was 30% greater than 26 30 Mulalley & Co 3 13 26 – Drew Smith 5 18 27 34 Breyer Group 7 13 27 23 Fitzpatrick 4 17 that excluding civils. In 2008 the figure was 28 21 Thomas Vale 14 13 28 – Dawnus 5 16 70% higher and in March this year, it was 29 36 Haymills 6 12 29 – Rydon 5 16 almost 200% greater. Including civils work, 30 1 Higgins Group 4 12 30 – Jackson Civil Engineering 2 15 the top five firms won £2.2bn in March Total 341 1,463 Total 399 3,328 compared with £738m when civils were excluded. In second place was another newly branded TOP ARCHITECTS TOP CLIENTS/PROMOTERS company, Vinci Construction, which includes 1 April 2008–31 March 2009 1 April 2008–31 March 2009 Norwest Holst and Taylor Woodrow. It picked Number Total Number Total up 11 deals worth a total of £195.5m, of projects value (£m) of projects value (£m) including a £158m win at London King’s Cross. 1 Building Design Partnership 24 1,900 1 BAA Lynton 4 1,831 It will no doubt please boss John Stanion 2 Foster + Partners 3 1,827 2 Olympic Delivery Authority 16 1,188 who aims to do more in the transport arena. 3 Sheppard Robson 14 1,632 3 Exel 1 1,000 4 Allies and Morrison 7 1,362 4 London & Continental Railways 1 1,000 Its other big win was a £31.3m job at Baker 5 HOK International 11 1,142 5 London Borough of Hackney 9 901 Street tube station. 6 EDAW 5 1,105 6 Bellway 5 783 Balfour Beatty finished in third place 7 Make Architects 3 1,097 7 Barking Riverside 1 770 8 Stanton Williams 4 1,032 8 Homes and Communities Agency 1 770 although it still dominates the annual rolling 9 Maccreanor Lavington 1 770 9 Land Securities Group 8 745 leader board. Its wins in March included 10 PRP Architects 18 669 10 Hammerson Group 2 606 large infrastructure deals such as a £172m 11 KSS Group 6 550 11 Birmingham council 10 585 12 Ateliers Jean Nouvel 1 500 12 Galliard Homes 3 564 Highways Agency job in Sussex and a £127m 13 John McAslan + Partners 4 462 13 Airtricity Developments (Scotland) 1 548 road scheme for Norfolk council. 14 Leslie Jones Architects 3 460 14 Swindon council 6 509 Morgan Sindall came fourth and won a 15 Pick Everard 12 440 15 Transport for London 8 508 16 Aedas 32 425 16 South Tyneside Homes 4 485 £500m sewage treatment works job for Severn 17 Faulkner Browns 9 420 17 Peel Media 6 482 Trent Water. 18 Broadway Malyan 18 412 18 Scottish government 1 445 19 Skidmore Owings & Merrill 2 403 19 Newlon Housing Trust 4 416 20 RHWL Partnership 8 401 20 Clearstorm 1 400 kFor more rankings of UK contractors and consultants log on to www.building.co.uk/leaguetables Total 185 16,997 Total 92 14,536 17.04.2009 BUILDING MAGAZINE 15baromddnj 15/4/09 12:51 Page 17 finance / 17 This information is compiled for Building by Barbour ABI. Call 0151-3533 500, email Commercial drought forces [email protected] or see www.barbour-abi.com I Barbour ABI’s figures include UK contracts Keltbray to plan redundancies with a value of £100,000 or above, and all work awarded by negotiation or competitive Groundwork and demolition specialist tender, including residential and civils work, Keltbray has said it will be forced to lay off unless stated otherwise. staff as medium-sized commercial jobs dry up, writes Tom Bill. The group, which is carrying out enabling works on the Shard (pictured) and the YEARLY WORK WON Pinnacle towers in London, employs 492 1 April 2008–31 March 2009 people. It declined to reveal the extent of the proposed cuts, but if it follows the industry Number of Total average of 10%, more than 50 people will lose projects value(£m) their jobs. 1 1 Balfour Beatty 758 3,548 Brendan Kerr, group managing director, 2 2 Laing O’Rourke 36 2,468 said: “Keltbray is not immune from the 3 3 Carillion 171 1,880 4 4 BAM Construct 72 1,795 turmoil in the financial markets and 5 5 Costain 51 1,766 challenges remain, therefore we are looking 6 7 Morgan Sindall 387 1,700 at every section of the business to reduce 7 6 Kier 306 1,476 8 8 Rok 293 1,260 overheads.” 9 9 Sir Robert McAlpine 22 1,031 John Keehan, the firm’s finance director, 10 10 Wates 181 941 blamed a lack of smaller jobs for the 11 12 Willmott Dixon 124 938 12 – Morrison Utility Services 42 801 redundancies. He said: “The main problem is but we would look to offer the service to 13 14 ISG 235 754 the lack of medium-sized projects that are complement what we do already.” 14 45 Vinci Construction 109 711 short duration and quick turnaround.” Kerr said: “We continue to further widen 15 13 Skanska 96 708 16 11 Amey 33 704 Despite the uncertain future, turnover at the the foundation of our business both in terms 17 15 Bowmer & Kirkland 94 668 company in the year to 31 October 2008 rose of services and sectors, and remain optimistic 18 21 Apollo Group 83 460 19% from £108.7m to £129.5m. Pre-tax profit our reputation for quality assurance will 19 20 Galliford Try 110 415 20 17 Miller 21 406 was up slightly from £3.34m to £3.36m. position us well when the economy eventually 21 19 Bovis Lend Lease 12 404 Keehan said the reason profit had not risen recovers.” 22 23 Interserve Projects 183 386 more was owing to the investment made in Turnover next year is likely to fall to near 23 24 Fitzpatrick 36 355 24 25 Von Roll Inova 1 350 new business sectors such as waste the £100m mark as a result of the recession 25 18 BAM Nuttall 65 345 management and nuclear. He said: “We are but Kerr said the key indicator of 26 26 Lakehouse 88 299 also still taking on people for the rail and performance over the next two years would 27 28 Higgins Group 15 288 London Underground markets.” be the maintenance of profit margins. 28 27 Ardmore 2 285 29 22 Leadbitter 71 279 The company is also looking to establish a The highest paid director took home 30 29 Midas Group 113 204 piling operation, although Keehan said: “We’re £921,876, a 33% rise on the previous year’s not looking to compete with the likes of Keller figure of £692,989.