LONDON (Alliance News) - WS Atkins PLC on Thursday said the recent US presidential election result was likely to bring a period of uncertainty, but maintained its outlook for the full year.
The design, engineering and project management consultancy reported a 10% increase in its revenue for the six months ended September 30, to GBP994.7 million from GBP904.6 million the same period the prior year.
However, WS Atkins' profit more than halved for the period to GBP22.4 million from GBP53.8 million, due to a GBP18.5 million impairment of goodwill and a GBP18.7 million charge coming from amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles. This largely related to WS Atkins' Energy business, as the North American oil and gas business market continued to face tough conditions.
On an underlying basis, though, stripping out these costs, pretax profit grew 14% to GBP63.6 million from GBP55.8 million.
WS Atkins said its UK and Europe business delivered a "very good first half" despite delays and cancellations in the commissioning of some major rail projects. The group said the UK government's continued commitment to infrastructure investment has resulted in "generally strong markets" and sad the UK vote to leave the European Union has had minimal impact on its business to date.
Meanwhile in its North American division, WS Atkins noted a particularly good first half, with its two major projects progressing well, though noted that the recent presidential vote was expected to bring a period of uncertainty.
WS Atkins said it traded in line with its expectations in the Middle East in a challenging environment, and noted that there were also tough conditions for its Energy business.
WS Atkins said its staff numbers have risen 1.6% since March 31 to 18,339, and said it moved to a net debt position of GBP90.3 million at September 30, from a net funds position at March 31 of GBP191.7 million. This was a result of its acquisition of nuclear business PP&T which completed in April.
The group declared an interim dividend of 12.50 pence per share, up 6.8% from 11.70p the prior year.
"Despite challenges in some markets, we have delivered good underlying profitability and the near term outlook in our UK and North American businesses is particularly positive. We are confident that our focus on differentiation in nuclear, digital innovation and advisory will deliver further growth over the longer term. Our outlook for the full year is unchanged," said Chief Executive Uwe Krueger.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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