BART Selects Balfour Beatty-Mitsui Team To Bid On Oakland Airport Connector.

ATLANTA -- Balfour Beatty today announced that a team of Balfour Beatty and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. - bbm AiRail Transfer - has been selected to bid on the contract for the highly-anticipated Oakland (California) Airport Connector, a proposed automated people mover system that will bring air travelers directly into one of the country's fastest-growing airports.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) recently issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to identify prospective project companies for the effort -- a public-private partnership both in terms of funding and implementation. The Oakland Airport Connector is a long-awaited public transit amenity and will replace the existing bus transfer routes from the Coliseum BART station in Oakland.

"Balfour Beatty and Mitsui are widely recognized and respected names internationally in the development of important infrastructure and transportation facilities, and we are confident that bbm AiRail Transfer will successfully develop the Oakland Airport Connector," said Terence Black, managing director of Balfour Beatty Capital US.

By the end of 2005, Balfour Beatty Capital had either physically completed or financially closed on 19 public-private partnership projects in the United Kingdom, where its parent company is based. In California, Balfour Beatty Construction worked on Phase 1 of the Golden Gate Bridge seismic retrofit project.

Balfour Beatty is a world-class engineering, construction and services group, well positioned in infrastructure markets which offer significant long-tern growth potential. Its partnerships with public and private customers generate secure, sustainable income. Its financial position, with significant net cash and with strong operating cash flows, offers continuing flexibility to add additional capacity and expertise to the business mix and to make appropriate investments in PPP and other long-term growth opportunities.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is a diversified trading, investment and service enterprise, with 172 offices around the world and more than 700 subsidiaries and affiliated companies in various industries, including metal products and minerals, machinery, electronics and information, infrastructure projects and chemicals. Beyond its traditional import, export, off-shore and domestic wholesale businesses, the company is stepping up investments in strategic projects and businesses.