The firm today confirmed that turnover would be down for the year but operating profits and margins up after its decision to bid selectively back in May 2010.

Since Richard Howson took over as chief executive at the start of the year, the contractor has picked up several high-profile contracts and is on course to double turnover growth in Canada to £1bn by 2015.

In the last few months, Carillion secured two major road schemes for the Highways Agency: the A1(M) upgrade between Leeming and Barton and the A5-M1 link road scheme, together worth £200m.

Carillion added it hoped to hear shortly whether it has won the preferred bidder race for the Royal Liverpool Hospital PFI.

It welcomed the outcome of the UK Government’s review of PFI, hoping this would pave the way for new PPP programmes under the National Infrastructure Plan.

In a pre-end of year trading statement, Carillion said: “We expect the full-year operating margin to remain strong, due to our selective approach, together with the benefits of lower overheads and bid costs in the UK, positive outturns on contracts being completed and our ongoing focus on cost management.

“Operating profit is expected to increase as the strong margin will more than offset the effect of lower revenue.”