WS Atkins interim profit and revenue rise as UK, Europe improve

WS Atkins posted a jump in first half pre-tax profit as revenue increased thanks in part to an improvement in the UK and Europe.

For the six months to the end of September, pre-tax profit rose 38% to £53.8m on revenue of £904.6m, up 8.8% from the same period last year.

The design, engineering and project management consultancy said it saw a significant improvement in the UK and Europe and a strong performance in the Middle East.

It said results in Asia Pacific were in line, with challenging markets in mainland China. In Energy, it experienced a difficult first half despite good growth in nuclear and power/renewable business.

The company declared an interim dividend of 11.7p, up from 11p in the first half of 2014.

Chief executive officer Uwe Krueger said: “This is another good set of results with strong growth in both revenue and underlying profitability. Our outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

“While short-term market uncertainty exists in some of our sectors, our strategic focus has put us in a strong position to benefit from longer-term growth. As urbanisation increases, infrastructure spending across the globe is predicted to grow significantly in the medium-term and we are well placed to benefit from this investment.”

At 0922 GMT, shares were up 1.5% at 1,382p.