ARL.L Regulatory News (ARL)

27 May 2010

Archial Group Plc

Trading Update

Archial Group Plc ("Archial" or the "Group") (ARL.L), the architects and design business, is pleased to provide the following trading update.

Archial is pleased to announce that trading for the first four months of the year is in line with management expectations.

The Group continues to develop its international business in its targeted markets. It has in the last month established a presence in Toronto and continues to see an increase in proposals and opportunities in the UAE and China. The Board is confident that the mix of projects across a diverse range of sectors and international locations, as well as the UK, offers signs of optimism for the future. The pipeline of future qualified opportunities has risen month by month from September 2009 to a record £60m as at end of May ,up from £53m at the end of March. The split of this potential is represented as: 38% from International sources, 36% Private UK and 26% Public UK. The increase of the international portion of the pipeline since the end of Q1 2010 has arisen from a higher volume of opportunities being presented and is not a reflection of a reduction in UK opportunities. This follows the established trend of international growth reported at the preliminary results announcement on 29th March 2010.

The Group is delighted to announce that two of its recently completed projects have been put forward for the prestigious Stirling Prize RIBA Award having won RIBA Regional Awards this year. These are the CHIPS Residential Project in Manchester and the Glasgow University Small Animal Hospital which last November won Scotland's top architectural award, the RIAS Andrew Doolan Prize.

A representative selection of project wins during the last 6 weeks includes the following:-

Masterplan of 32Ha residential site in Changzhou for Mah Sing Group

Further design work for 'Mayflower' project for LaiFung in Shanghai

Extended masterplan and new interiors for 'Butterfly' project in Zhongshan

Designs for large public realm project in Bahrain

Further major construction phases of two Underground Station complexes in Toronto

Research and Development Laboratory, Cambridgeshire

Private Girls School extension, Bedfordshire

Masterplan for Secondary School, Hertfordshire

Three residential developments in Dorset

New hotel in Suffolk

New hotel in Tyneside

Extensions to Orford Park Leisure Project, Warrington

Appointment to Scottish Courts Framework

Refurbishments to 13 branches of a major international bank throughout Scotland.

Major Healthcare Project, Central Scotland

The Board is pleased that Archial has continued to out-perform many of its peers and has maintained its position in the leading flight of UK and International practices, as announced by the Architects Journal in mid May.