A £1 billion surge in new work has boosted Carillion’s hopes of achieving its full-year targets, the firm said today.

In a trading statement this morning, Carillion also revealed its strong revenue growth with operating profit in line with expectations.

Carillion said its performance continues to reflect the consistent implementation of its successful strategy, which enabled the business to “rescale and reposition” during the economic downturn in order to take advantage of opportunities for growth as market conditions improve.

In construction, Carillion has secured preferred delivery partner positions and new contracts worth over £550 million. These include further projects for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, together with projects for the Paradise Circus Limited Partnership in Birmingham and the Kings Cross Central Limited Partnership in London, where for both of these customers Argent is acting as development manager.

A Carillion Joint Venture has been selected as the preferred bidder by the National Treasury Management Agency in the Republic of Ireland to deliver Bundle Five of its schools Public Private Partnership programme, which comprises five schools located in counties Meath, Carlow, Wicklow and Wexford. As well as delivering design, construction and support services over the 27-year concession period, the values of which are included in the totals above, Carillion also expects to invest equity in the project that will also generate significant concession revenue.

Carillion chief executive, Richard Howson, said: ”I am pleased to say that the pace of work winning in the second half of the year has continued to pick up, as we expected. Much of the £1 billion of new work announced today reflects our continuing success in winning repeat work for long-term customers, consistent with our selective approach to contracts and margins. We also continue to see some improvements in market conditions, especially in the UK, and following the UK government’s spending review, we expect to see further opportunities for outsourcing and capital projects over the medium term.”

The firm added: “Although trading conditions in some of our markets are still recovering, we continue to see signs of improvement, especially in the UK. The Group’s order book and pipeline of contract opportunities both remain strong, as does operating cash flow, which continues to enable the Group to invest to support our strategy for growth. Therefore, we believe the overall outlook remains positive and the Group continues to be well positioned to make further progress in 2016.”

Carillion will announce its 2015 preliminary results on 3 March 2016.