3 Sep 2013 07:00
3 September 2013
WYG plc
Trading Update & Notice of Results
WYG plc ("WYG" or the "Company" or the "Group"), the global management and technical consultancy to the built and natural environment, today provides an update on trading for the six months ending 30 September 2013. The Group's Annual General Meeting will take place on 25 September and its half year results are expected to be announced on 2 December 2013.
In June we reported that our focus had moved towards driving sustainable growth and today we can announce that we have seen a number of positive developments in the delivery of this strategy. In the UK, we have secured additional business across our core sectors of Defence and Urban Development including several projects related to the MoD's Base Optimisation programme and the Group is winning increased levels of planning and enabling work associated with the widely reported increase in activity in the construction and house building sector.
Overseas, we have been awarded new commissions in our key growth area of supporting stabilisation in Fragile and Conflict Affected States and, in addition to our successes in Southern Africa reported on 30 July, we have also secured new contracts in Bulgaria, Uzbekistan and the Western Balkans, notably a large scale project to advise SMEs in Croatia.
As a result of this increased activity, revenues to date have shown a modest increase compared with the same period last year, reversing the negative trend of recent years.
The Board stated in June that it anticipated that the profit outturn for the current year would be higher than market expectations at that time. In light of the positive recent trading, the Board is now pleased to confirm that it expects the outturn to further exceed those expectations.
Paul Hamer, Chief Executive Officer of WYG plc, said:
"We have had a good, strong start to the year, with encouraging progress in both our UK and overseas markets.
"Looking ahead, we are beginning to see signs that the UK government's investment in major infrastructure projects and its encouragement of the house building sector are having a positive effect on our core, front-end disciplines of planning and development. Overseas, we continue to build on our strong market position and maintain our focus on partnering to access new and emerging markets. Our strong track record in executing quality projects underpins our strategy of creating growth and becoming a global group."
ENDS
WYG plc Tel: 0113 278 7111
Paul Hamer, Chief Executive Officer
Sean Cummins, Group Finance Director
MHP Communications Tel: 020 3128 8100
John Olsen / Katie Hunt / James White / Vicky Watkins
Numis Securities Limited Tel: 020 7260 1000
Stuart Skinner/ Jamie Lillywhite (Nominated Adviser)
David Poutney/ Ben Stoop (Corporate Broker)