Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, announces today that Balfour Beatty Rail has agreed to sell its UK trackwork manufacturing business to Progress Rail Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc.

The trackwork business designs and manufactures manganese steel castings, track panels, turnouts and crossings at five sites in the UK. The business generated revenue of £55 million in 2010 and had gross assets of £43 million.

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Over the last few years, the procurement model has evolved in the provision of core services to our major UK rail clients, eliminating the competitive advantage of owning manufacturing capability and leading to the sale of the business. Balfour Beatty Rail remains committed to its core business as a global, fixed-rail infrastructure contractor.

Manfred Leger, CEO of Balfour Beatty Rail, said: "In Progress Rail, we have found an industry partner who will develop the UK switching and crossing business further and will integrate it into their worldwide manufacturing programme. I am looking forward to working with Progress Rail as a strong supply chain partner for our global rail infrastructure contracting activities."

(CD/GK)