28th Feb 2014 14:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Waterman Group PLC Friday reported an increase in profit and revenue for the half year, reflecting a strong performance across the business.
The engineering and environmental consultancy posted pretax profit of GBP580,000 for six months to end-December, up from GBP72,000 a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP34.0 million from GBP31.4 million.
Waterman said its UK property division did particularly well, with revenue rising to GBP10.6 million from GBP8.2 million, while the energy and civil and transportation arms also saw growth.
The firm said the London property market remains "very strong" and in recent months it has experienced more activity outside London, particularly in the residential and retail sectors.
Outside the UK, the company's businesses in Australia, Ireland and Poland generated an operating profit which has been partially offset by losses of GBP88,000 in Russia, resulting from lower levels of work and utilisation following the conclusion of several development projects.
Waterman said it expects Russia to be treated as a discontinued business in the year to June.
In addition, following the withdrawal from China and the integration of the London based international team into the UK property teams, the international segment returned to probability, it said.
Financially, the firm said net funds increased 43% to GBP1.6 million from GBP1.1 million in June.
The company will pay a dividend of 0.4 pence per share up from 0.2 pence.
The stock was trading at 73.00 pence Friday afternoon, down 1.50 pence or 2.0%.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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