ATK.L Regulatory News (ATK)

WS Atkins plc Interim Management Statement

WS Atkins plc ("Atkins" or the "Group"), the design and engineering consultancy group, today provides its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 April 2012 to date.

Group performance

Our UK region has had a good start to the year. We are mobilising resources in the rail business following the award of two signalling frameworks in January and in highways services we have begun work under our Area 2 Highways Agency contract and successfully secured an extension to our Area 6 contract. The water business is benefiting from increasing volumes within the AMP5 framework and our sector focus areas of defence and aerospace are performing well, with our recent appointment as a tier 1 supplier to EADS affirming our reputation in this market. Finally, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are providing an invaluable opportunity for Atkins to showcase its engineering design and planning skills.

Elsewhere in the UK. as previously reported in May, the Group completed the sale of its minority interest in RMPA Holdings Limited (which delivered the Colchester Garrison PFI project) for a net consideration of £14.4 million.

Our consultancy business in North America continues to experience weak market conditions, further impacted 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. Despite these current market conditions we continue to believe we are well placed in North America to expand our geographic footprint and further broaden our service offering through leveraging Group resources over the medium term.

The Peter Brown construction management at risk business is now expecting to incur additional costs in the final close out of legacy contracts and it is anticipated that this, together with the volume shortfall in its current backlog previously noted, will lead to an increased loss for this business in the current year.

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.

The Group's Asia Pacific and Europe business has secured 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. Performance in the quarter has been in line with expectations and Scandinavia, in particular, currently stands with a strong work in hand position.

Our Energy business is trading well in buoyant markets across all sectors. The continued success of our n.triple.a joint venture is evidenced by recent strategic wins in Saudi Arabia and South Africa. We are securing an increasing volume of multi-disciplinary design work in our oil and gas business as we benefit from the skills acquired with our Pöyry acquisition. Headcount has grown in the period and staff vacancy levels are high.

Financial position

The Group's financial position remains strong. In May we successfully completed our debut issue in the US private placement market, the proceeds of which were used to repay drawn funds under our existing banking facility. The normal seasonal working capital outflow has resulted in net funds at the end of June of around £108m.

Outlook

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.

The Group's half year results will be announced on 15 November 2012.

Ends

Enquiries

Notes to editors

1. Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,420 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time critical infrastructure projects.

*It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2012) and the 14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2012).

Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

2. Analyst Conference Call

A conference call for analysts will be held at 1400 hours today. Dial-in details are available from Scott Fulton at Smithfield +44 (0) 20 7903 0641.

3. Cautionary Statement

This information has been prepared for the shareholders of Atkins as a whole and its sole purpose and use is to assist shareholders to exercise their governance rights. In particular, this news release has not been audited or otherwise independently verified and no warranty is given as to its accuracy or completeness (other than any such warranty which is mandatorily implied by statute). Atkins and its directors and employees are not responsible for any other purpose or use or to any other person in relation to this announcement and their responsibility to shareholders shall be limited to that which is imposed by statute.

This announcement contains indications of likely future developments and other forward looking statements that are subject to risk factors associated with, among other things, the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries, sectors and business segments in which the Group operates. These and other factors could adversely affect the Group's results, strategy and prospects. Forward looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. They relate to events and/or depend on circumstances in the future which could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those currently expected. No obligation is assumed to update any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.