12th Feb 2014 07:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - WS Atkins PLC Wednesday said its outlook for the current financial year remains unchanged as it has continued to trade in line with expectations.
In a statement, the engineering consultancy said its UK business is continuing to trade well, driven by government infrastructure investment that's helping its rail and highway consultancy units.
Revenues in its European business continue to be in line with expectations, while market conditions in the US are stable and it continues to expect a stable margin performance through the second half of the year.
Atkins added that its pipeline in the Middle East remains strong, and its continuing to invest in its growing Asia Pacific business. It said it is expecting the Confluence business, which it acquired in 2013, to contribute about GBP10 million of revenues in the current financial year, although trading profit will largely be offset by integration and transaction costs.
It said its oil and gas and nuclear businesses have traded well since the start of October, and a number of "significant project opportunities" across the business give it confidence for future progress.
It added that its financial position remains strong and it expects to report net funds of about GBP140 million at the end of March.
It has just finished talks on its triennial pension valuation and said the plan has a funding deficit of GBP430 million. It said it has agreed to pay GBP32 million a year into the plan for 2013 and 2014, and then raising payments by 2.5% a year for the 10 years to 2025.
When WS Atkins released its half-year results in November, it said its full-year outlook was slightly ahead of expectations.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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