LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) – British homebuilder Bellway Plc hiked its dividend by nearly a third after posting a 51 percent rise in full-year profit, and is eyeing further growth in sales as it drives new site openings across the country.

Bellway Chief Executive John Watson said on Tuesday the company had made a good start to its new financial year, with reservations up 11 percent so far.

“It’s a steady marketplace and we’re glad to see reservations are at least ticking up,” Watson told Reuters.

“For us it’s about opening new outlets. We will hopefully have another year of higher average selling price and a bit more volume and margin growth,” he added. Bellway is targeting a 5 percent increase in the number of sites and sales volumes.

The builder, which operates from over 200 sales outlets in the UK, posted a pretax profit of 67.2 million pounds ($106 million) in the 12 months to end-July, compared with 44.4 million last year.

That was towards the top end of market expectations, which had already edged higher after an upbeat trading update from the company in August. Forecasts ranged between 58 million pounds and 67.7 million, with the average at 63.8 million, according to 18 forecasts on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

But the outlook for the UK economy remains uncertain. Data last week showed Britain’s jobless total hitting a 17-year high, with youth unemployment its highest since records began in 1992.

LONDON (Reuters) – The builder behind the Shard skyscraper and one of the key partners on the London Olympics, Britain’s Mace, is gearing up for a fight to win Qatar’s $8.2 billion (5.2 billion pound) soccer World Cup construction contract, as building markets flag.

Global market jitters as well as a dearth of financing and government spending on infrastructure are forcing contractors and consultancy firms to scour further afield to win lucrative contracts and top-up order books.

“It has been worrying in the last 3 months as there has been a reining back of a commitment to fund projects,” Mace Chief Executive and chairman Stephen Pycroft told Reuters.

“Every client we speak to is constrained by a lack of bank finance,” he said.

Privately-owned Mace, which has joined forces with British builder Laing O’Rourke, is tipped as one of the favourites to win the 2022 soccer World Cup stadium deal after helping to deliver the London Olympic site on time and within budget.

“It’s tough, there is no doubt it’s tough. Qatar are looking for the best people in the world … We’re one of five, everyone’s been interviewed, and the view is that they will decide on somebody before December,” said Pycroft.

A construction industry source in Doha said on Monday that Qatar would likely award a contract next month.

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Balfour Beatty Plc said a tie-up with Tata Projects, part of India’s Tata Group, will contribute to a huge slab of growth in the long term, as it targets projects in high-growth markets such as India and Africa.

“The relationship with Tata … could be a very significant part of our business,” Chief Executive Ian Tyler told Reuters, after Balfour unveiled a memorandum of understanding with the engineering and construction arm of Tata Group on Tuesday.

Tyler declined to declined to comment on specific projects the joint venture will bid for in the lucrative Indian market.

“We’re starting with the Indian market … we may look at other similar projects that would probably take us into places like Africa, or sub-Saharan Africa in particular, where the combination of the two businesses could be particularly effective,” said Tyler.

The companies are targeting work in the transportation sector, particularly rail, as well as power generation and transmission, mining, water and waste water.

Balfour said it will leverage its expertise in global public-private partnership (PPP) markets, as India hopes that half its targeted $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over five years is privately built.

But attractive projects are scarce and competition is fierce as companies join the race to cash in on a push by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to lure private funding into infrastructure.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways is on track to meet its target of being profitable in 2012, despite the continuing challenges of global markets and fears about another economic downturn.

Chief Executive James Hogan said the privately run company’s wide geographic focus and operational efficiencies as a new airline would put it into the black in 2012 despite industry body IATA warning of waning consumer confidence, sluggish international trade and high fuel prices.

“We’ll break even this year, and then we’ll move into profitability,” Hogan told Reuters on Saturday.

“For airlines it’s tough, but we’re not a transatlantic carrier so probably a lot of the negative numbers that are commentated on by IATA…(have) such a high weighting on transatlantic,” he said.

Global airlines have become resilient to negative headwinds, the Australian executive added, speaking on the sidelines of a two-day gathering of nearly 300 business people of Irish descent in Dublin.

“I think as airline executives, we’re used to toughness, whether it be war, pandemics, airports freezing up, you’ve got to adjust, you’ve got to move forward, that’s our style of working.

“I always take advantage of a good crisis by shaking up the company,” he added.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – There is general agreement that European banks will need fresh capital well in excess of 100 billion euros ($133.8 billion) and it will likely come from a variety of sources, including the euro zone rescue fund, Ireland’s finance minister said on Saturday.

Germany and France are split ahead of key talks on Sunday over how to strengthen shaky European banks. Paris is keen to tap the euro zone’s 400 billion rescue fund, the EFSF, to recapitalize its own banks and Berlin is insisting the fund should be used as a last resort.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said European banks need 200 billion euros in additional funds.

“I think there is general agreement that it will be significantly in excess of 100 billion (euros),” Michael Noonan told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum in Dublin.

“I know that some of the big German banks that I was talking to personally intend raising money on the market so it will be private funding. Other banks would like to avail of the EFSF fund. Other banks will rely on their sovereign governments to provide the capital so there is going to be a range of ways of doing it.”

“I think the principle should be that sovereign governments are responsible for their banking system on the advice of the European Central Bank.”

“If banks can’t capitalize themselves, either by issuing equity to the market or by getting exchequer funds then obviously they would have the option of requesting EFSF funding. When we recapitalized our banks here we went the EFSF option.”

DUBLIN (Reuters) – There is general agreement that European banks will need fresh capital well in excess of 100 billion euros (86 billion pounds) and it will likely come from a variety of sources, including the euro zone rescue fund, Ireland’s finance minister said on Saturday.

Germany and France are split ahead of key talks on Sunday over how to strengthen shaky European banks. Paris is keen to tap the euro zone’s 400 billion rescue fund, the EFSF, to recapitalise its own banks and Berlin is insisting the fund should be used as a last resort.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said European banks need 200 billion euros in additional funds.

“I think there is general agreement that it will be significantly in excess of 100 billion (euros),” Michael Noonan told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum in Dublin.

“I know that some of the big German banks that I was talking to personally intend raising money on the market so it will be private funding. Other banks would like to avail of the EFSF fund. Other banks will rely on their sovereign governments to provide the capital so there is going to be a range of ways of doing it.”

“I think the principle should be that sovereign governments are responsible for their banking system on the advice of the European Central Bank.”

“If banks can’t capitalise themselves, either by issuing equity to the market or by getting exchequer funds then obviously they would have the option of requesting EFSF funding. When we recapitalised our banks here we went the EFSF option.”

DUBLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) – There is general agreement that European banks will need fresh capital well in excess of 100 billion euros and it will likely come from a variety of sources, including the euro zone rescue fund, Ireland’s finance minister said on Saturday.

Germany and France are split ahead of key talks on Sunday over how to strengthen shaky European banks. Paris is keen to tap the euro zone’s 400 billion rescue fund, the EFSF, to recapitalise its own banks and Berlin is insisting the fund should be used as a last resort.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said European banks need 200 billion euros in additional funds.

“I think there is general agreement that it will be significantly in excess of 100 billion (euros),” Michael Noonan told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum in Dublin.

“I know that some of the big German banks that I was talking to personally intend raising money on the market so it will be private funding. Other banks would like to avail of the EFSF fund. Other banks will rely on their sovereign governments to provide the capital so there is going to be a range of ways of doing it.”

“I think the principle should be that sovereign governments are responsible for their banking system on the advice of the European Central Bank.”

“If banks can’t capitalise themselves, either by issuing equity to the market or by getting exchequer funds then obviously they would have the option of requesting EFSF funding. When we recapitalised our banks here we went the EFSF option.”

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Corporate leaders mixed with actors and comedians in Dublin on Friday as the cream of Ireland’s diaspora gathered to discuss ways of accelerating their homeland’s recovery and rebuild its reputation after a devastating financial crisis.

The chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG), Willie Walsh, joined Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne and nearly 300 other delegates for the two-day Global Irish Economic Forum, a Davos-style conference held in the plush surroundings of Dublin Castle.

“I’m here to listen and learn,” Paul McGuinness, the manager of Irish rock group U2, told reporters as he headed into the forum.

“My own clients aside, we travel the world and know how many smart Irish people there are scattered around, I’m sure they can be motivated to help with what needs to be done here in many different ways.”

Ireland’s government wants delegates to use their influence to help the country build on its fragile recovery following a property market collapse and EU-IMF bailout.

“We are mobilising people with Irish connections who are of Irish heritage and who are leaders in the corporate world to help us in our efforts to bring about economic recovery and to get investments and jobs into this country,” Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said.

“The kind of people who will open doors for us and the kind of people who will help us tilt investment decisions in Ireland’s direction to ensure that jobs are created here.”

LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – A weak outlook took the shine off Wolseley Plc’s annual results despite the world’s biggest building supplies company boasting a 38 percent rise in profit, slightly ahead of expectations.

Wolseley, operator of the Plumb Center and Ferguson chains in Britain and the United States, said it would squeeze further costs out of the business if there were a global downturn, due to its large exposure to the U.S. construction market and an “anaemic” UK market.

“If there were another downturn, absolutely we would have to look again at our cost structures, we’d keep a very conservative balance sheet,” Chief Executive Ian Meakins told journalists.

“At the moment, we feel ok, but we’re conscious of what might be coming down the track,” he said on Tuesday. “Overall we feel in reasonable shape to tackle a downturn”.

Shares in Wolseley — whose UK competitors include Travis Perkins Plc — were down 3.1 percent at 1,489 pence by 0835 GMT, at which point the FTSE 100 index was down 2.3 percent. The stock remains not far from an 11-month low of 1,385p set in August.

Wolseley warned that the broader picture for building materials remained tough. The economic environment has deteriorated recently and caution persists around the United States’ residential and commercial recovery potential.

“Recent economic forecasts have weakened and over time this is likely to have an impact on our markets,” said Meakins, adding the company had not seen any impact on sales as yet.

LONDON (Reuters) – Proposals for the biggest shake-up to Britain’s building planning system in decades are not an attempt to trick those who cherish the nation’s countryside, the minister responsible for the changes said on Thursday.

“They will see when the policy framework is adopted, that all of our intentions are making sure that we can have homes and jobs and we can do so in a way that safeguards, what is very precious, our natural and our historic environment,” Planning Minister Greg Clark told Reuters.

Senior ministers said they would press ahead with proposals despite criticism that it would blight what remains of the nation’s dwindling countryside in favour of greater development.

The Conservative-led government said that changes are vital to help to revive a faltering economy and to make housing more affordable. It says planning delays cost the economy 3 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) per year.

Clark, a Conservative, defended the 52-page draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) on Thursday and suggested that the current debate is based on a misperception around the government’s intentions.

“It’s better to make changes that you know are necessary rather than simply tinker around with a broken system in order to avoid any controversy,” he said, speaking after a presentation at a British Property Federation event.

“If you start with over 1,000 pages and you come to distillation … then inevitably it is the case that not everything is maybe expressed in the clearest way but that doesn’t signal any malign intent or signal any hidden agenda to subvert the process,” he told the seminar.