Round-up: Kier, Balfour Beatty, Lidco...

24th Feb 2011 16:06

Growth in its construction arm helped housebuilder and contractor Kier lift half-year sales by 9% to £1.1bn.On a like for like basis, underlying profit before tax grew by 26% to £31.3m. Pre-tax profits came in at £29.6m, up from £16.7m with the interim dividend up by 8% at 20p.Balfour Beatty has closed a £48m, 25-year deal with the North West Fire and Rescue Services PPP scheme for the design, construction, funding and provision of facilities management for 16 community fire stations, of which seven are in Merseyside, five in Cumbria, and four in Lancashire.Heart monitoring equipment supplier LiDCO expects revenues for the full year to be up by approximately 16% to £6.2m, with in excess of 500 monitors sold / placed in the year. Cash at the year end was £1.4m (2009/10: £1.85m), and the company continues to have no bank borrowings. Sinclair Pharma's revenues increased by 28% to £14.1m in the half-year to December. Like-for-like revenues increased by 9%, while the operating loss reduced to £2.6m from £13.7m. "The recent announcement regarding a possible merger with IS Pharma demonstrates the board's intention to improve critical mass and create substantial shareholder value" Sinclair said.