(Alliance News) - Ricardo PLC on Tuesday said it expects to report underlying pretax profit that is in line with market consensus for its recent financial year after all its divisions saw a higher level of activity and increased revenue in the second half.
The engineering, environmental and strategic consultancy said underlying pretax profit for the financial year that ended June 30 is in line with market consensus. Company-compiled analysts' consensus is GBP18.0 million, with a range of GBP15.1 million to GBP19.6 million.
This would represent a swing from Ricardo's pretax loss of GBP5.3 million a year ago but still lags behind pre-pandemic levels, when pretax profit was GBP26.5 million.
Revenue was approximately GBP350 million, a fall of 0.6% from GBP352 million a year ago.
Order intake was over GBP350 million, down from GBP369 million.
The West Sussex, England-based firm's Energy & Environment business has been "strong" during the year with order intake and revenue increasing by about 14% and 12% respectively on the prior year. Significant contributions were made by both the policy segment, due to increased services to the European Commission, and the water segment, which benefited from an upsurge in water resource-management services to the UK water sector.
The Rail business also saw revenue rise about 3% on the prior year together with improving profit margins. Australia continues to be a flourishing market, Ricardo said, as are Asia and the Middle East, while the European market remains cautious due to reduced passenger numbers.
The Defense business saw order intake and revenue increase on the prior year by about 70% and 14%, respectively.
"Ricardo has continued to recover from the impact of COVID-19. In the first half of the financial year, both revenue and operating profit increased on the prior six-month period and this trend has continued in the second half of the financial year. All divisions saw a higher level of activity and increased their revenues in the second half of the year," the firm said.
Ricardo plans to announce its full-year results in September 2021.
Shares in Ricardo were down 1.4% to 376.59 pence in London on Tuesday morning.
By Amrit Sahota; newsroom@alliancenews.com
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Ricardo (RCDO)