ATK.L Regulatory News (ATK)

Pre-close trading update

WS Atkins plc ("Atkins" or the "Group"), the design, engineering and project management consultancy, today provides an update on trading in advance of its half-year results for the six months ending 30 September 2013 which will be announced on 14 November 2013.

The Group's overall performance in the year to date remains in line with expectations.

In the UK we have had a strong first half and continue to deliver good growth across our highways, rail, water and environment, defence and aerospace and management consultancy businesses.

We have made further progress on the transfer of our highways services business to Skanska and expect to complete this process shortly. Europe has traded in line with our expectations in the period, against a strong performance in the first half of last year.

In North America we are making good progress with the reorganisation of our infrastructure and environment consultancy business. In August we were pleased to announce the transfer of the ongoing operations of Peter Brown, our US construction management at risk business, to Moss & Associates.

Our Middle East business, which continues to focus on the growth markets of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, has had a steady start to the year as it continues to be impacted by project delays and restructuring. As a result of these issues, it is expected that there will be a greater weighting of profits to the second half in the current year.

Our Asia Pacific business is trading in line with expectations. As discussed at our recent analyst presentation, we continue to explore the growth potential of the wider South East Asia region.

We see plentiful opportunities to grow our Energy business and bidding activity is high. Headcount has moved ahead in the period.

Underlying Group headcount, after adjusting for the UK highways services employees who have already transferred to Skanska, has increased around 2% in the year to date.

The Group's financial position remains strong. Our increased focus on cash generation has delivered well in the year to date, particularly in the Middle East.

Outlook

Overall, the outlook for the Group for the year remains unchanged and in line with our 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 18,000 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. 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 announcement 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.