Balfour Beatty, the £2.5 billion turnover international engineering, construction and services group, announces today that following the completion of the acquisition of the world-leading rail electrification and traction power supply business previously owned by Adtranz, the business is today relaunched under the name Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems. Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems designs, manages, installs and commissions railway electrification systems and services internationally. It has leading positions in Germany, Sweden and Austria. It also has a strong presence in Turkey, China, Malaysia, South America, the UK and other territories through current project work and in some cases through a permanent business presence. In 1999, it had sales of approximately £180 million and operating profits of £10 million. It employs approximately 1,400 people.
Commenting on the launch of Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems today, Balfour Beatty’s Chief Executive, Mike Welton, said:
“The launch of Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems is a very important further step towards our stated objective of becoming a world-leading supplier and maintainer of fixed rail infrastructure.”
Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems has a strong and well-established management team and world-recognised technology and expertise, most notably in catenary systems, high-speed and conductor rail technology and traction power supply systems and equipment. Its principal customers include Deutsche Bahn in Germany, Banverket in Sweden and ÖBB in Austria. It also works extensively for metropolitan transit and mainline rail authorities including those in Germany, China, Turkey, Brazil and Malaysia.
The overall Balfour Beatty Rail organisation, now strengthened by Balfour Beatty Rail Power Systems, has a much wider customer base to which its full range of rail capabilities is now available. These include turnkey solutions for railway electrification systems, major multi-disciplinary rail projects, construction and upgrading of rail track, rail asset management and maintenance and switches and crossings manufacture and supply. Balfour Beatty Rail will have an annual turnover of approaching £600 million in 2001.
Investment in the world’s rail infrastructure is growing under the influence of rapid traffic growth, the development of mass transit systems, rail utility restructuring, increased outsourcing of maintenance and renewals work and the increased involvement of the private sector. |