Atkins

Press Release

Interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2005

29/11/2005

Professional services group WS Atkins plc (Atkins) today announced preliminary unaudited results for the six months ended 30 September 2005.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

	Six months to 30 Sept 2005	Six months to 30 Sept 2004 Pro forma¹	Six months to 31 Sept 2004
Turnover excluding Joint Ventures	£516.1m	£463.4m	£463.4m
Operating profit	£25.9m	£23.5m	£23.5m
Operating margin ²	5.0%	5.1%	5.1%
Profit before tax	£28.2m	£26.0m	£25.4m
Profit before tax (before JV taxation)	£30.2m	£28.7m	£28.0m
Dividend per share proposed for period	4.5p	4.0p	4.0p
Fully diluted earnings per share	21.0p	19.7p	19.1p
Cash generated from operations	£29.3m	£26.6m	£26.6m
Net funds	£106.9m	£71.3m	£71.3m

Notes:

As permitted by IFRS 1, First time adoption of IFRS, the Group has elected to adopt IAS 32, Financial instruments: disclosure and presentation and IAS 39, Financial instruments: recognition and measurement, prospectively from 1 April 2005. The pro forma figures provided here show comparatives had the Group adopted IAS 39 and the IFRIC draft interpretations regarding PFI/PPP concessions for the six months ended 30 September 2004.
5.3% before PFI/PPP bid costs (2004: 5.1%).

HIGHLIGHTS

Turnover up by 11%.
Operating profit up by 10%.
Operating margins increased in all core areas except Rail, with an overall margin of 5.0% (2004: 5.1%).
Substantial turnover growth in Design and Engineering Solutions (17%), Highways and Transportation (16%), Middle East and China (41%) and Management and Project Services (17%).
Robust order book, with work in hand representing 87% of forecast turnover for the current year (2004: 83%).
Good cash flow after payments to the pension scheme of £7.2m (2004: £1.8m) to fund the actuarial deficit. An additional lump sum payment of £10.0m was made to the pension scheme in October 2005.
Strong focus on Metronet’s capital programme.
Interim dividend up 12.5% to 4.5p per share.

Commenting on the results, Keith Clarke, Chief Executive of Atkins, said: “The results were ahead of our expectations, with most of our core businesses growing strongly in response to public sector demand. Prospects for our business remain good and we are confident that the Group will continue to grow profitably.”

Enquiries

Atkins
Keith Clarke, Chief Executive	+ 44 (0) 1372 726140
Robert MacLeod, Group Finance Director	+ 44 (0) 1372 726140

Brunswick
Mike Smith, Deborah Fairbrass	+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Notes to Editors

1. Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) plans, designs and enables the delivery of complex infrastructure and buildings for clients in the public and private sectors across the world. Atkins is the largest multi-disciplinary consultancy in Europe; the largest engineering consultancy in the UK; and the fourth largest design firm in the world (sources: New Civil Engineer Consultants File, 2005; Swedish Federation of Consultant Engineers & Architects, 2005; Engineering News Record, 2005).

2. Attachments

Attached to this press release are the Overview of the period, Half year review, the unaudited consolidated income statement, consolidated balance sheet, consolidated cash flow statement and notes to the financial information for the period.

3. Analyst Presentation

A presentation for analysts will be held today at The Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3ED, at 9.30am. A webcast of the presentation will subsequently be available via the Company’s website, www.atkinsglobal.com.

View the full the announcement as a PDF.

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