By Aby Jose Koilparambil

March 13 (Reuters) - UK's Balfour Beatty

forecast a higher profit from its core infrastructure businesses

this year, with the company's CEO saying the results would be

driven by faster-than-expected activity in the UK power sector

and a pick up in U.S. orders.

The company's shares were trading about 9% higher at 1152

GMT on Wednesday, topping the FTSE 250, helped in part

by plans to return more money to shareholders via stock buybacks

and dividends.

Balfour's underlying profit from operations (PFO) rose 2% in

2023 to 236 million pounds ($302 million) from its

earnings-based businesses, which excludes its investment

portfolio.

The London-headquartered company did not specify how much

this profit would grow in 2024 but CEO Leo Quinn told Reuters

that a pick up in activity in the U.S. and UK would drive

results.

"We are seeing growth in transmission, growth in the

de-risking of the grid, and the ASTI programme, which we were

thinking would be pushed out the next three to five years, is

being accelerated," Quinn said.

The UK's Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment

(ASTI) framework funds large onshore electricity transmission

projects, with incentives for timely delivery of projects.

Balfour's UK nuclear projects, Sizewell C and Hinkley Point,

are progressing well and activity associated with energy

security and net zero carbon are being accelerated, Quinn added.

Balfour's forecast implies that no matter who wins the next

UK general election, the company would benefit as the government

would focus on clean and domestically-generated energy, Russ

Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, wrote in a note.

While Balfour's UK business comprises national projects such

as highways, onshore transmission and nuclear power stations,

its U.S. operations are mostly commercial constructions.

Quinn said Balfour was getting firm orders for U.S. projects

as last year's tech downturn eases and on the prospect of lower

interest rates.

The UK and U.S. construction divisions accounted for about

29% and 22%, respectively, of Balfour's 2023 underlying PFO.

($1 = 0.7819 pounds)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru)