ShareCast News

Dr Uwe Krueger, the Chief Executive Officer of WS Atkins, the FTSE 250 design and engineering consultancy, doubled his stake in the company on the same day it was forced to issue a profit warning.

Kruegar, who has occupied his role for one year, added another 10,000 shares to his previous holding of 10,053, at 673p each.

The announcement was made after trading hours on Thursday.

The warning, which knocked almost 10% off the firm's share price, was given after additional costs and a volume shortfall occurred in the Peter Brown construction management at risk business, which resulted in an increased loss for the current year.

The firm also experienced difficulties in North America, which were further affected by a number of project delays as uncertainty increases ahead of the US presidential election in November.

"We do not expect an improvement in the trading environment during the remainder of this financial year and, as a result, we have taken action to further reduce headcount to reflect anticipated market demand," the company said.

"The Middle East has seen delays in projects coming to market, constraining our anticipated headcount growth, and reaching client agreement on various contract variations. In addition, we continue to experience more onerous contract payment terms on some of our current government and infrastructure work.

"Maintaining our focus on project selection and the close management of ongoing variation orders remains critical to our financial success in the region. We continue to forecast headcount growth across the region during the remainder of the financial year.

"While the group's geographic and sector diversification continues to provide resilience, the outlook for the group's overall performance for the full year is slightly below previous expectations."

It was by no means all bad news however, with the Asia Pacific and Europe business securing good contract wins in the period including projects on the third runway for the Hong Kong airport authority and the Lindingo tram line in Sweden.

The UK region also had a good start to the year and is now mobilising resources in the rail business following the award of two signalling frameworks in January. It was also pleased that the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are providing an "invaluable opportunity" for it to showcase its engineering design and planning skills.



Top Director Buys

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB)

Director name: Ms Linda G. Stuntz

Amount purchased: 2,800 @ 2,281.36p

Value: £63,878

Energy Technique (ETQ)

Director name: Mr Leigh Stimpson

Amount purchased: 1,600,000 @ 5.00p

Value: £80,000

Energy Technique (ETQ)

Director name: Mr Martin Michael Reid

Amount purchased: 1,200,000 @ 5.00p

Value: £60,000

F&C Asset Management (FCAM)

Director name: Mr Edward Bramson

Amount purchased: 67,048 @ 87.21p

Value: £58,473

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB)

Director name: Ms Linda G. Stuntz

Amount purchased: 1,000 @ 2,281.63p

Value: £22,816

Ladbrokes (LAD)

Director name: Mr Ian Bull

Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 157.20p

Value: £15,720



Top Director Sells

BT Group (BT.A)

Director name: Mr Ian Livingston

Amount sold: 155,974 @ 217.98p

Value: £339,992

Virgin Media Inc. (VMED)

Director name: Mr John Rigsby

Amount sold: 7,424 @ 1,768.33p

Value: £131,281

Anglo American (AAL)

Director name: Sir John Parker

Amount sold: 7,606 @ 1,900.00p

Value: £144,514

BT Group (BT.A)

Director name: Mr Gavin Patterson

Amount sold: 55,049 @ 217.98p

Value: £119,996

Virgin Media Inc. (VMED)

Director name: Mr John Rigsby

Amount sold: 4,000 @ 1,768.13p

Value: £70,725

Virgin Media Inc. (VMED)

Director name: Mr John Rigsby

Amount sold: 3,000 @ 1,768.37p

Value: £53,051

BT Group (BT.A)

Director name: Mr Tony Chanmugam

Amount sold: 34,979 @ 217.98p

Value: £76,247

Land Securities Group (LAND)

Director name: Mr Richard Akers

Amount sold: 8,169 @ 799.00p

Value: £65,270

Lancashire Holdings (LRE)

Director name: Mr John Henry Bishop

Amount sold: 4,807 @ 791.02p

Value: £38,024

NR