9th Nov 2007 07:00
Ricardo PLC09 November 2007 9th November 2007 Ricardo plc Interim Management Statement Ricardo, the leading UK independent automotive consultancy, employing over 1700people worldwide is providing its first Interim Management Statement. Ricardo's strategy is to exploit opportunities provided by the changingautomotive landscape and the need to maximise the world's energy resourceswhilst minimising global CO2 emissions. The Company is targeting growth in anumber of new geographic regions and market sectors, and is investing in R&D todevelop new technologies for an expanding customer base. The implementation of the Group strategy is progressing well and Groupperformance is in line with management expectations. Order intake across the business continues to perform well, up 22% at the end ofthe first quarter compared to prior year, with growth driven by further ordersfrom the Far East. We are also benefiting from a strong orderbook, which hasgrown 7% since the year end to £98m at the end of September. The pipeline ofopportunities continues to be strong, both in terms of size and quality. Revenuehas increased 11% in the first quarter with an increased profit compared to thesame period last year. Within Technical Consulting, the UK business is performing well as a result ofincreased business from Europe and Asia. Operations in Shanghai are gatheringmomentum as we continue to increase the number of local engineers as the officedelivers its own work packages. The Japanese market remains buoyant andstrengthening relationships with key clients continue to bear fruit. We havealso opened a small office in Delhi, to build further on recent order wins. Strategic Consulting continues to broaden its client and activity reach, whileretaining its main focus on the automotive sector, we have now begun workingwith customers outside this sector on a selected basis. A new office will beopened this year in Munich, to work more closely with key clients in the Germanmarket and attract further key talent into the business. In order to provide world-class services, the recruitment of key staff and thecreation of a unified team and culture is an important part of the Ricardostrategy. In the period we have enhanced our management team with theappointment of a new HR Director, a Procurement Director and two highlyrespected Non Executives for Germany and the US management boards who bring withthem excellent market experience and contacts. Under new leadership both the US and German divisions are refreshing theirtalent pool and making organisational changes to build their businessdevelopment functions and operational delivery skills. The US is progressing toplan and utilisation is increasing following a rightsizing activity. While weare seeing positive market conditions in Germany, finding the right engineeringresource to support the level of locally available business has provedchallenging in the period, which is constraining local growth plans. Net debt will follow a similar trend to last year, increasing at the end of thefirst half before returning to lower levels by the year end. Overall, the Group continues to deliver growth in line with management strategyand the Board is confident of further growth in this financial year. The interim results for the six month period to 31 December 2007 will beannounced on 27 February 2008. Further enquiries: Ricardo plcDave Shemmans, Chief Executive 01273 455611Paula Bell, Group Finance Director 01273 455611Website: www.ricardo.com Gavin Anderson & Company 020 7554 1400Fergus WylieMichael Turner This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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