Balfour Beatty plc history

The first major such venture came in 1924, when Balfour Beatty took over management of the East African Power & Lighting Company in Kenya.

Under this new arrangement, Balfour Beatty secured its first major construction contract in 1926, a £2.5 million hydroelectric power project in Scotland which was most noteworthy for involving a 15-mile-long tunnel.

Balfour Beatty Construction’s roots date back to 1933, when two regional construction businesses were founded—Frank J. Rooney Construction Company in Miami, Florida, and Eugene Simpson and Company in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, cofounder Beatty died in 1934.

The project had been ordered by Winston Churchill following the torpedoing and destruction of the battleship Royal Oak by a German U-boat in October 1939.

An example of the latter was the 1949 acquisition by Power Securities of James Kilpatrick & Son, an electrical contracting firm.

1969: BICC acquires Balfour Beatty, which becomes a wholly owned subsidiary.

Balfour Beatty also took over the electrical contracting activities of Power Securities, which were reorganized in 1973 as Balfour Kilpatrick.

The firm then entered into a joint venture that in 1976 won a £350 million contract to build the Mina Jebel Ali port in Dubai, a four-year project that included not only the port but also a 300-house village complete with clubs, sports facilities, a power station, roads, and other services.

In 1979 BICC began diversifying into the rapidly growing electronics field, for a more balanced and, hopefully, recession-proof portfolio.

In 1981 BICC sales hit £1.36 billion and its profits, £102 million, both healthy figures, and the company looked forward to the new decade with much confidence.

The Corning-BICC plant was finished in 1983 at a cost of £17.5 million and was an immediate success.

Halfway through these doldrums, in 1984, the BICC board of directors named Sir William Barlow as its new chairman.

Earnings in 1989 were £201 million on sales of £3.79 billion.

New CEO Alan Jones, who joined the company in early 1995, took the immediate step of selling the housebuilding unit to Westbury plc.

Balfour Beatty barely eked out a profit in 1996.

In 1998 Balfour Beatty made profits of £69 million compared to only £25 million from cables.

In 1999 BICC reached a strategic decision to exit from its founding cable business.