Shares in Leighton Holdings made a solid performance in the market yesterday after it announced its big contracts yesterday.

In a statement made to the Australian Securities Exchange, the company revealed it has sealed a $1.5 billion deal in new contracts, which may re-establish the trust in the group that scratched its reputation last May.

The company values $2.3 billion on its new projects.

Leighton's third quarter update in May showed profits for the June 30 of this year may be lower than normal, while 9 month revenue and profits were affected by the strong dollar.

“Work in hand at 31 March 2010 stood at $37.5 billion which was negatively impacted by the $3.6 billion from exchange rate effects, up from $36.5 billion at the same time last year,” the company said in the statement.

New contracts and variations awarded during the March quarter totalled $2.5bn. Since March 2010, an additional $1.8bn of work has been won and the Group is in a preferred position on over $6bn of projects which should be awarded in the next few months.”

On Thursday, Leighton's shares peaked at $1.29 to a day's high of $33.69. It closed at 70 cents, or 2.1 per cent at $33.10.

Leighton also disclosed yesterday it has received a six year contract extension worth $1.1 billion to expand its mining services at Mahakam Sumber Jaya coal mine in Indonesia.

Leighton Contractors Indonesia, a divisio of Leighton Asia, will expand its coal mining operations and is expected to geenrate at least 8 million tonnes of coal per yer.

In new South Wales, Thiess Services received a $405 million contract from BHP Billiton for the remediation works at the Hunter River Remediation project, which involves remediation of river sediments affected by industrial activities of former Newcastle Steelworks at Mayfield.

The remdiation project is due for completion in 2012.

Leighton Asia managing director Hamish Tyrwhitt said the contract has increased the company's work to $7 billion.

''Our operation in Indonesia has been an outstanding performer for the past few years and we expect to continue to perform strongly in both mining and infrastructure,'' Mr Tyrwhitt said.

Leighton currently has $800 million in new contracts or extensions on various projects.