UK companies vying for olympic gold

Which companies could emerge as winners at the Olympic Games?

In 2007, the UK government agreed a £9.3bn budget for the London 2012 Olympics. Rather surprisingly, they've just announced that they are now "increasingly certain" of delivering the Games for less than £9bn — considerably under budget.

So where has that £9bn been spent and which companies have benefited the most? What's more, who will benefit from the consumer expenditure generated by the Games?

A search through the last year's company announcements using keywords like 'London 2012' reveals that all sorts of companies are making vague claims of expected trading improvements during the Olympic period — but who will really see enough of a boost to affect their bottom line and, more importantly, won't experience a corresponding downturn afterwards?

On your marks!

I've listed some of the companies with a reasonable claim to an Olympic boost below. They range from FTSE 100 giants to AIM-listed tiddlers, so the impact of the Olympics on each company could vary widely.

One of the biggest companies listed below is a rare UK investment for the world's third-richest man, billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Earlier this year, he increased his holding in this company to more than 5% and I'm very happy to hold it in my portfolio, too.

Get set!

Believe it or not, I've whittled this longish list down from a much longer list of possible contenders. At the end, I've selected two of the companies listed below as possible gold medal winners for Olympic investors — based not only on their Olympic prospects but also on wider operations.

Go!

My own two tips for Olympic glory are Balfour Beatty and Pinnacle Technology Group.

1) Balfour Beatty

Infrastructure specialist Balfour Beatty constructed the Aquatics Centre for the games and recently announced a £50m, 10-year deal to run the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the Games.

As my Foolish colleague Tony Luckett highlighted back in January, Balfour Beatty increased its dividend every year through the recession and currently trades on a price-to-earnings ratio of only 7.9, with a handsome dividend yield of 4.9%. Adding icing to an already attractive cake, it announced a £300m Highways Agency contract recently.

2) Pinnacle Technology Group

My second tip is a micro-cap punt that is growing strongly and I believe could be approaching a breakthrough into profitability. As I mentioned above, Pinnacle Technology Group is providing a range of telecoms services to BBC International at the Games, a role it also performed at the Royal Wedding last year.

Behind this lies substantial growth — its customer base has grown by 250% over the last year and it recently reported Q1 revenues up 175% on the same period last year. Currently trading at 0.33p per share, it might be worth a look if you're a small cap investor.

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