Press Release
WS Atkins plc AGM Trading Statement
05/09/2007
At the Annual General Meeting held today, the Chairman Ed Wallis made the following statement to shareholders in relation to current trading:
“I am pleased to report to shareholders that the business has commenced the year well and this confirms our confidence for the full year.
In detail:
Our Design and Engineering Solutions segment continues to perform well with further contract wins. Our markets remain robust and the integration of Advantage, which was purchased in March, has been successful.
The workload of our Rail segment remains strong and performance in the second half and for the full year is anticipated to be ahead of expectations. The Metronet supply chain work continued under the old contractual structure until recently but contractual changes have now been made and we are now working directly for Metronet to deliver station and civil designs and civil inspections and assessments.
The Highways and Transportation segment has started the year well and the outlook for the year remains good. As we have stated before, there are a number of important bids this year, including the Northamptonshire County Council re-bid. Today we completed the purchase of Intelligent Space Partnership Limited, a small “Pedestrian Movement” consultancy with 18 staff.
To reflect the increased focus on our European businesses, we have created a new segment, Middle East, China and Europe. In this segment, our Middle East business continues to grow strongly with further contract wins across the region and we continue to invest in our China business.
The Management and Project Services segment has started the year broadly in line with expectations with a solid performance from our cost consultancy business in the UK and growth in the USA. The Management Consultants business has had a slow start to the year but we are optimistic that progress will be made in the second half.
The performance of the Asset Management segment is in line with expectations.
In Equity Investments, Metronet entered PPP Administration on 18 July 2007 and on 30 August 2007 Trans4m’s contract with Metronet for the delivery of station improvements was terminated.
In the first quarter of the year, our staff numbers grew by 500 to 16,400, as anticipated. The consultation period on the closure of the principal sections of the Atkins Pension Plan has ended and following minor amendments these changes will come into effect on 1 October 2007.
As stated in our Annual Report, the demand for our services in our key markets is strong and we are confident that the Group will continue to achieve further progress in the year ahead.”
Other Developments
We are also pleased to announce that Ed Wallis has today agreed to continue as Chairman of the Group for a further three year term.
5 September 2007
ENQUIRIES:
| Atkins | +44 (0)1372 726140 |
| Robert MacLeod, Group Finance Director | |
| Sara Lipscombe, Group Communications Director | |
| Smithfield | +44 (0)20 7360 4900 |
| John Antcliffe |
Note: Conference Call
Robert MacLeod will be hosting a conference call for investors and analysts at 8:30am tomorrow (6 September 2007) to review this trading statement. For dial-in details, please contact Tom Hardman at Smithfield on +44 (0)20 7903 0680.
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