Atkins trading in line with its expectations
WS Atkins plc ("Atkins" or "the Group"), the design, engineering and project management consultancy group, today provides its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 October 2012 to date.
Group performance
The Group continues to trade in line with our expectations and despite challenging conditions in a number of markets our outlook for the full year remains unchanged.
United Kingdom
Our UK business has performed well in the period. Our rail business is operating with improved utilisation as the signalling work won at the start of last year begins. Our water and environment business is busy with High Speed 2 work and AMP5 framework activity and our defence and aerospace businesses continue to grow. Elsewhere, in our highways and transportation business, we have secured further design work in the period on the later upgraded sections of the M25 motorway as part of our joint venture.
UK headcount has continued to increase, maintaining the momentum we experienced in the first half of the year.
North America
Despite the difficult trading conditions for our North American consultancy business, the outlook for the full year remains in line with our expectations. We continue to anticipate an improvement in the second half consultancy margin against that reported in the first half.
Within the Peter Brown business we have been focusing on closing out the last two remaining legacy projects as well as bidding for new work to build order backlog.
Middle East
The negotiation of outstanding contract variations continues to be a protracted and challenging process for our Middle East business, impacting both short term profitability and cash flow performance.
Headcount has remained broadly flat during the period and we do not anticipate a material change in staffing levels from now through to the year end.
Asia Pacific and Europe
Our Asia Pacific and European businesses continue to trade well in solid markets, which we expect to be reflected in a good second half margin performance. Headcount in our Faithful+Gould business is increasing, reflecting the growth opportunities for this business across the Asia Pacific region.
Energy
Our Energy business has continued to perform well in the period. In response to the buoyant market environment, we continue to invest in growing this business. Our Energy headcount has increased by more than 15% since the beginning of the year.
Financial position
The Group's financial position remains strong and we are on track to report net funds of over £110 million at 31 March 2013.
Outlook
The Group's geographic and sector diversification is providing resilience in challenging economic conditions and our overall outlook for the full year remains unchanged.
