Pre Close Trading Update

5 Jul 2007 07:00

White Young Green PLC05 July 2007 For Immediate Release 5 July 2007 WHITE YOUNG GREEN PLC PRE-CLOSE PERIOD TRADING UPDATE White Young Green Plc (''WYG''), consultant to the built, natural and socialenvironment, is pleased to provide this pre-close period trading update for thefinancial year ending 30 June 2007. Market conditions in the UK, Ireland and internationally have remainedfavourable throughout the year. Accordingly the Group expects profit before taxand the amortisation of acquired intangibles to be in line with itsexpectations, margins to be strengthened, working capital ratios to be improvedand order book to be at record levels when preliminary results for the year to30 June 2007 are announced on 25 September 2007. In the year to 30 June 2007 the Group will deliver significant growth in bothrevenue and profit through a blend of strong organic growth and four earningsenhancing acquisitions. Those acquisitions, Trench Farrow, Adams Kara Taylor,Turner Holden and Malachi Cullen have all integrated well into the WYG businessmodel and have contributed to Group profitability in the period in line withexpectations. The acquisition pipeline remains strong and further news flow canbe anticipated in the months ahead as the Group steps up its focus on energy,the environment, transportation, international infrastructure and higher valuemanagement services. That focus has been further enhanced by the appointment of Lawrie Haynes asChief Executive Officer of WYG which took effect on 1 July 2007 in succession toJohn Purvis who stepped down from that position at the end of June prior to hisretirement in October 2007. Having operated at either CEO level or ManagingDirector level for large, complex multi-skilled organisations in the energy,communications and transportation sectors Lawrie brings to WYG a wealth ofsenior management experience of direct relevance to the successful delivery ofWYG's ambitious corporate development plan for the period to 2010. WYG continues to benefit both directly and indirectly from investment in the2012 London Olympic Games and in the period has carried out work on the Weymouthsailing venue, the transport interchange, training facilities for visiting teamsand the investigation and remediation of the Olympic Park site. This work hasinvolved all of WYG's primary skill groups working collaboratively to delivercoordinated town planning, environmental, transportation, engineering andproject management services. In the international arena the successful diversification of an essentiallysocio-economic consultancy into more traditional technical areas of capitalinvestment has continued with highway infrastructure projects in Georgia, railinfrastructure projects in Europe, water services projects in Poland and privatesector development projects in Romania and Russia all being secured in theperiod. In addition the in-country management teams have been strengthened inPoland, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey in order to fully release the widerpotential of WYG International in those locations in the year ahead. The impact of climate change and the urgent need to better utilise the earth'sscarce energy resources is becoming much more widely understood and appreciated.The recent launch of WYG Energy, which brings together all of the necessaryresearch, technological and implementation skills to assist clients to respondpro-actively, efficiently and effectively to these challenges, has beensuccessful in opening up a new and growing market to the Group which will be ofincreasing significance going forward. In summary, WYG has enjoyed another successful year of strong growth and looksforward to further progress in the year ahead. For further information contact: WHITE YOUNG GREEN PLC Tel: (0113) 2787111Lawrie Haynes, Chief Executive OfficerBob Hartley, Finance Director BUCHANAN COMMUNICATIONS Tel: (020) 7466 5000Tim Anderson / Lisa Baderoon / Rebecca Skye Dietrich This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange