£1.4bn airport deal

Balfour Beatty has secured work on a £1.4bn US contract which is likely to reassure nervous investors.

the construction giant is part of a consortium picked to build a train network at los angeles International airport.

It is a project which includes six stations, a maintenance garage, moving walkways and the engineering required for up to nine trains to run at once.

the deal was cheered by investors, sending shares up 2.6pc, or 7.1p, to 280.5p, and will shore up confidence in Balfour amid concern over the British building industry. there were fears that the collapse of infrastructure behemoth Carillion last month exposed a wider weakness and could trigger a dangerous chain reaction. Carillion tried to buy Balfour in 2014 when the latter was facing questions over its own survival. But it has since successfully turned around its fortunes, netting a £12m profit in the first half of 2017 – up from a £15m loss a year earlier.

the laX deal is a major coup and its first major US infrastructure operation. Balfour has a 27pc stake in the laX Integrated express Solutions consortium with other partners, including German firm Hochtief.