3rd Jun 2014 07:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - WYG PLC Tuesday reported a swing to full-year pretax profit, and said it will resume dividends, not paid since December 2008, with 0.5 pence a share to be paid to shareholders on November 30.
WYG also revealed that it has been appointed as a partner in a consortium that has been awarded a new contract in Libya by the UK's Department for International Development.
In a statement, the infrastructure consultancy said it made a GBP1.8 million pretax profit in the year ended March 31, compared with a GBP3.3 million pretax loss a year earlier. Revenue increased to GBP126.9 million from GBP125.7 million, boosted by the UK's recovering economy, as operating expenses fell to GBP124.6 million, from GBP128.2 million.
WYG's order book increased to GBP86.8 million from GBP77.6 million over the financial year, excluding the new contract win reported Tuesday. The rise was due to UK orders more than offsetting a fall in international orders, which were hit by delays in agreeing the European Union budget. WYG said that is pipeline of international projects has improved significantly since the EU budget was agreed.
WYG said its revenue and profitability since the year end has continued to be in line with expectations.
Chief Executive Paul Hamer said WYG made considerable progress during the year, with rising profits and a growing order book down to the company's focus on generating quality revenues.
"WYG is now in better shape than it has been for several years, with a highly differentiated consultancy offering, a financial structure which fully supports its potential, and clear momentum in its order book," Hamer said in a statement.
"Our key strengths in advising clients on asset creation, managing socio-economic development programmes and facilitating the restructuring of fragile states place us well to continue to convert our strong pipeline of opportunities in these areas," Hamer added.
Meanwhile, WYG said its contract win means that it will work in a joint venture with the consortium's leader, Cardno Ltd, an Australian professional infrastructure and environmental services company, in the first phase of a programme to support the Libyan security and justice sector. The work will take place for up to two years and ten months.
WYG said its initial work will result in the delivery of an inception report. If the report is accepted, WYG expects it to lead to further work on the project, which has a total potential value of about GBP28.0 million. Further work would involve overseeing the training of police officers and judicial police. Other tasks would include improving court administration and security, securing munitions, and weapons stockpiling and decommissioning.
"This contract win is a major achievement as it is the single largest stabilisation project in Libya tendered by DFID to date, demonstrating WYG's expertise and leadership in delivering critical, strategic programmes in fragile and conflict affected states over the past 20 years as well as its ability to create growth by working closely with globally recognized partners such as Cardno," Chief Executive Paul Hamer said in a statement.
"It builds on our experience in delivering large scale and complex projects, which include the GBP68.0 million infrastructure projects facility in the Western Balkans, and positions us well to continue building on our key strength in fragile states by converting our strong pipeline of opportunities," Hamer added.
The contract forms part of the UK's security, justice and defence programme in Libya, funded and overseen jointly by the UK's Department for International Development, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and the Ministry of Defence.
WYG shares were Tuesday quoted at 117.43 pence, up 5.3%.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
WYG