Atkins

Press Release

Q3 2007/8 Interim Management Statement

13/02/2008

WS Atkins plc (“Atkins” or “the Group”), the design and engineering consultancy group, today provides its Interim Management Statement for the quarter ended 31 December 2007, ahead of its pre-close trading statement which is expected to be issued on 16 April 2008.

Performance

The performance of the Group in the year to date has continued to be in line with our expectations, with our core markets remaining robust. The Group’s financial position is good.

Our Design and Engineering Solutions segment is performing well with further contract wins across the business including preferred bidder for the design for the enhancement of Birmingham New Street station. The acquisition of Nedtech Engineering BV, a 50 person Dutch aerospace consultancy, was completed in December and we have subsequently been awarded contracts for Airbus’ A380 and A330F aircrafts.

The recovery of our Rail segment is continuing as anticipated. This has been further confirmed by the formal award of the contract to undertake the re-signalling upgrade project at Rugby and Nuneaton as part of Network Rail’s West Coast main line upgrade programme.

The Highways and Transportation segment is performing in line with expectations and we have recently been awarded a contract for the design of the A14 widening scheme project in Cambridgeshire.

Our Middle East business continues to make good progress across the region, with strong growth particularly in Abu Dhabi.

The Management and Project Services segment is performing in line with our expectations with a good performance from our cost consultancy business. Our Management Consultants business has, as expected, been impacted by the poor start to the year and improvement in performance is unlikely to be seen until after the fourth quarter.

Outlook

We are confident that the Group will continue to perform in line with our expectations and our forward workload remains strong.

Enquiries

Atkins:
Robert MacLeod, Group Finance Director	+ 44 (0) 1372 726140
Sara Lipscombe, Group Communications Director
Smithfield:
Tom Hardman	+44 (0) 20 7360 4900

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 world’s fifth largest international design firm (sources: New Civil Engineer Consultants File, 2007; Building Magazine, 2007; Engineering News Record, 2007).

2. Analyst Conference Call
There will be a conference call for analysts at 0830 today. Details are available from Tom Hardman at Smithfield (details above).

View the Interim Management Statement as a PDF.

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Share Price 1040.00 GBp -15.00 (-1.42 %)