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Balfour Beatty agrees new deal to delay pension fund payment

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INFRASTRUCTURE group Balfour Beatty has worked out a deal with the trustee of its pension fund to delay payment of an £85m deficit agreed at the time of the Parsons Brinckerhoff disposal.

The company agreed heads of terms with the fund’s trustee, and Balfour will now make the payment over eight years, instead of one payment this year, as originally planned. There will be a £4m cash payment in 2016, and increase annually thereafter.

Leo Quinn, Balfour’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased that the pension fund trustee has worked with us to re-profile the pension payments, in light of the cancelled share buy-back.”

He added that the arrangement gives the firm “a clear plan on how the pension deficit will be reduced over time”, while maintaining balance sheet flexibility as it carries out the plans for performance improvement set out in its Build to Last strategy earlier this month.

Shares in Balfour were up by 0.52 per cent.