ATK.L Regulatory News (ATK)

Atkins trading in line with expectations

WS Atkins plc ("Atkins" or the "Group"), the design, engineering and project management consultancy, today provides its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 October 2013 to date.

Group performance

The Group continues to trade in line with our expectations and our outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

United Kingdom and Europe

Our UK business continues to trade well with good momentum in our rail and highway consultancy divisions, together accounting for around 40% of our revenue, underpinned by Government driven infrastructure investment. Following completion of the sale of our UK highways services business on 4 October 2013, as previously noted, we expect progress in the business's operating margin in the second half.

Europe continues to track in line with our expectations, with turnover broadly flat year on year.

North America

We have experienced stable market conditions in our North American business in the period and, as previously stated, we anticipate a steady margin performance through the second half of the year. We continue to roll out our operational excellence programme across the region, with the initial benefits expected to impact in the next financial year.

Our highways and transportation business has retained its strong and steady market position in a number of state Department of Transport programmes, with future growth expected to come from an increase in privately funded schemes.

Middle East

We are now mobilising on our recent metro wins in the region and our pipeline remains strong, with property opportunities in the UAE starting to materialise. Headcount growth on these metro projects in the second half will be somewhat offset by reductions elsewhere, as we complete our restructuring in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Asia Pacific

We continue to invest in our growing business in Asia Pacific as we focus on diversification from our historic Hong Kong and mainland China base. The integration of the Confluence team, following the acquisition in October 2013, has been successful and we are already delivering projects with our combined capability. We expect a revenue contribution from Confluence of around £10m in the current financial year, although the trading profit will be largely offset by integration and transaction costs.

Energy

Our oil and gas and nuclear businesses have traded well in the period. We are making progress on achieving regulatory approval for the acquisition of Nuclear Safety Associates which will augment our skills base with 130 people in nuclear safety and professional security services in the North American market. A number of significant project opportunities exist across our energy business, which gives us confidence for future progress.

Triennial pension valuation

We are pleased to have concluded the negotiations on the triennial actuarial funding valuation and associated recovery plan with the Trustee of the Atkins Pension Plan. At 31 March 2013 the valuation shows a funding deficit of £430m.

A level of company contributions has been agreed over a repayment plan period of 12 years to March 2025. The Group will pay £32m for the first two financial years, consistent with the 2010 repayment plan, with payments in the following years escalating at 2.5% per annum.

Balance sheet

The Group's financial position remains strong and we expect to report net funds of around £140m at 31 March 2014.

Outlook

Our overall outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

The Group will publish a pre close trading update on 9 April 2014.

Ends

Enquiries

Notes to editors

1. Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 17,400 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Over 75 years, from post-war regeneration and the advent of nuclear engineering to high speed rail and the integrated sustainable cities of the future, our people's breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world's most complex projects.

*14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2013) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2012).

2. Analyst Conference Call

A conference call for analysts will be held at 0800 hours today. Dial-in details are available from Smithfield on +44 (0) 20 7360 4900.

3. Cautionary statement

This announcement 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.