The planned rescaling of UK construction activities has driven the reduction in Carillion's revenue by 9% to £1,964.6 million in the first half of 2013.

Net borrowing increased to £270.8 million at 30 June 2013 (31 December 2012: £155.8 million), which Carillion said partly reflected the outflow of working capital resulting from the planned rescaling of UK construction, though it expects net borrowing at the year end to be lower than at the half year.

Overall, underlying profit from operations increased to £92.3 million from £85.1 million in 2012 thanks to the sale of equity in PPP projects. The group's underlying operating margin increasing to 5.1% from 4.3%.

Construction services outside the Middle East reported revenue down 20% to £503.8 million from £631.6 million and underlying operating profit down 27% to £19 million.

First-half orders and probable orders were up 32% to £2.9 billion, with recent wins including the £335m Royal Liverpool Hospital PPP contract and the £400 million first-phase development at Battersea Power Station.

Carillion chairman Philip Rogerson said:

"Carillion's first-half performance was in line with the Board's expectations. Despite market conditions remaining challenging, new order intake was strong, with £2.9 billion of new orders and probable orders in the first half of the year, which enabled the Group to increase the total value of its order book plus probable orders to £18.4 billion. This, together with a strong pipeline of contract opportunities, continues to support the Group's 2013 and medium term targets."

Source: Carillion