3rd Dec 2015 08:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Project management and technical consultancy WYG PLC on Thursday said it turned to profit in its first half and hiked its interim dividend significantly as it was boosted by strong infrastructure and planning markets in the UK.
WYG said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of September was GBP2.1 million, compared to a GBP400,000 loss it made a year earlier primarily due to stiff cost-cutting across the business which dragged down operating costs.
That helped to offset a slight fall in revenue in the half, down to GBP62.6 million from GBP63.2 million, as international revenue was held back by delays to the European Union's budget. These issues in Europe were mitigated by a strong performance in the UK, where WYG saw its revenue rise 15% and underlying operating profit increase 67% thanks to the strong infrastructure and planning markets in the country.
The group's UK order book at the end of the half was GBP60.9 million, up 15% from the end of March, while its international order book also strengthened, up 20% to GBP62.5 million, thanks to contract wins in Turkey and Eastern Europe. This left its total order book at the end of September up 18% to GBP123.4 million, and this has been boosted further since to sit at GBP130.0 million at the end of November.
WYG said its interim dividend would be 0.5 pence per share, up 67% year-on-year from 0.3p.
The group said trading since the end of the half has been in line with its expectations and expects further opportunities to win contracts in the UK to arise following the government's spending reviews and the Autumn Statement.
"Building on the strong first half performance in the UK, we are seeing an increasing flow of work from major public and private sector clients, underpinned by continuing economic growth and infrastructure spending which are the main drivers of our core front-end planning and consultancy business," said Chief Executive Paul Hamer.
"With an exceptionally high proportion of our current year revenue expectations already in our order book together with the strong momentum in our international business and the steps taken over recent years to increase group profitability, we are well placed to deliver on market expectations for the full year," Hamer added.
Shares in WYG were down 1.3% to 129.27p early Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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