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* Spending delay by UK government after Brexit vote
* Conditions in Middle East expected to remain challenging
* 2017 revenue order visibility 70 pct
* Shares down 4.4 pct, 2nd top FTSE midcap loser (Adds CEO, analyst comments, details, share movement)
By Esha Vaish
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Carillion Plc, a British buildingsupport services company, said the pace of new order intake hadslowed in the second half of the year, partly due to a spendingdelay by the government following Britain's vote to leave theEuropean Union.
The company, which maintains railways, roads and militarybases, had seen some slowdown in the UK either releasingcontracts to the market or awarding contracts that had been bidon, Chief Executive Richard Howson told Reuters.
Although most UK construction and support services managedto avoid an immediate post-Brexit hit as many had forecast,recent warnings from Capita and Mitie havehighlighted that Brexit uncertainty has caused customers todelay decisions.
Carillion said on Wednesday it had won orders and probableorders worth about 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in the sixmonths ending Dec. 31, compared with 2.5 billion pounds in thepreceding six months.
The company partly blamed a slower pace of contract awardsfrom the Middle East, particularly in Oman, as the regiongrapples with low oil prices. Howson said the conditions in theregion were expected to remain challenging.
Carillion stock was down 4.4 percent at 245 pence by 1101GMT, making it the second top FTSE midcap loser. It wasalso the most shorted stock across the FTSE 350.
The company, which has been increasing its exposure tosupport services work, said it expected to match expectations of2016 pretax profit of about 180 million pounds, which wouldrepresent a roughly 16 percent year-on-year increase.
"Numbers to be characterised by strong revenue growth butmargin down slightly overall," N+1 Singer analysts wrote.
"Overall, no reason to get involved here and much betterways to play UK infrastructure spend," they added, pointing topeers such as Balfour Beatty, Costain andMorgan Sindall.
Carillion forecast a total and probable orders pipeline ofabout 16 billion pounds by the year end, lower than the 17.4billion pounds it had forecast by the end of June.
Order visibility for 2017 revenue stood at about 70 percent,lower than the 84 percent visibility it had reported last yearfor 2016 revenues.
However, Howson said he expected Britain's divorce from theEU to stimulate government spending, with Britain havingpromised an extra 23 billion pounds of infrastructure investmentover the next five years.
"Over the next 3-7 years the big opportunities are in UKinfrastructure as the country... prepares itself to compete froma different base from other European countries," Howson said. "Ican see some of those bids now starting to come into ourpipeline." ($1 = 0.7916 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Merrimanand Susan Thomas)