ATK.L Regulatory News (ATK)

Atkins trades 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 April 2013 to date.

Overall the Group has performed in line with expectations in the first quarter.

Group performance

The positive momentum we experienced in the UK at the end of the previous financial year has continued through the first quarter. Specifically, our rail business remains particularly busy and we have continued to grow headcount during the period. Elsewhere our water and environment business has been successful in securing a place on the Environment Agency's water and environmental management (WEM) framework as part of a consortium, with Atkins as the design partner. This contract award, together with Thames Water's Alliance contract already announced and now mobilised, further increases the resilience of our UK water business and reduces dependence on the AMP investment cycle.

Further to the announcement of the sale of our UK highways services business we have recently transferred four contracts to Skanska, and anticipate the remaining four contracts of the business will transfer in the coming months following conclusion of the client approval process.

Our European business has had a steady start to the year, trading against a particularly strong performance in the first half of last year.

In North America our transportation consultancy business continues to trade well and good progress has been made with the restructuring and reorganisation of our infrastructure and environment business. In addition, the Group's operational excellence programme is now being rolled out across North America, with a particular focus initially on delivering a more efficient overhead structure.

The Peter Brown construction management at risk business is working to close out the one remaining legacy contract. As we have communicated previously, the reduced workload volume in this business is expected to result in it reporting an operating loss in the current year.

In the Middle East we have recently secured work as the lead multidisciplinary designer for Doha Metro's Red Line south as part of the QDVC consortium (Qatari Diar/Vinci Construction Grands Projets). Headcount in the region has remained stable during the first quarter as we continue to be impacted by delays in project awards.

Our Asia Pacific business has performed well in the period. We are making good progress with our strategy of diversifying our business in Hong Kong into the wider infrastructure market, increasing our presence in south east Asia and building more of a multidisciplinary offering in mainland China.

Growth has been maintained in our Energy business, albeit it at a slower rate, with headcount showing a slight increase in the period.

Financial position

The Group's financial position remains strong, with net funds at the end of June of around £130m. The position at September 2013 is expected to reflect the normal first half seasonal working capital outflow.

Outlook

The Group has made a good start to the year and the outlook for the full year remains unchanged and in line with expectations.

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 17,700 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 2012) 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) 207 360 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.