6th Sep 2006 16:30
Atkins (WS) PLC06 September 2006 6 September 2006 WS Atkins plc Trading Update At the Annual General Meeting held today, the Chairman Ed Wallis made thefollowing statement to shareholders in relation to current trading: "I am pleased to report to shareholders that, whilst the Metronet Enterprisecontinues to impact results, the good performance of our wholly-owned businessconfirms our confidence for the full year. In detail: The Design and Engineering Solutions segment is performing well with furthergrowth in headcount and good contract wins across all areas. The integration ofMSL, which was purchased in March, is complete and the business is growingstrongly. Our Rail business has continued to see a recovery in its workload and operatingmargins. This segment, however, remains affected by the continuing issues withthe delivery of the Metronet stations capital programme. Despite a slow start to the year, our expectations for the Highways andTransportation segment for year remain unchanged. The second half of the yearwill benefit from the successful commencement of our Gloucestershire CountyCouncil contract. Our Middle East and China segment is continuing to grow strongly, exceeding ourexpectations, helped by the creation of a rail business within the Middle East. The Management and Project Services segment is performing well and theintegration of our recent acquisition of Mantix Group is progressing to plan. The performance of the Asset Management segment has, as anticipated, reflectedthe absence of last year's one-off benefits. In Equity Investments, Metronet has been significantly impacted by challengingoperational issues although the expected delivery of the Waterloo and City lineimprovement project next week marks a significant achievement. The stationsprogramme is beginning to show signs of progress although improvements inefficiency are still required. LSH is trading in line with expectations. As stated in our Annual Report, the outlook for the Group remains positive anddemand for our services is strong in all of our markets. We are confident thatthe continued focus on people and our core skills will enable the Group toachieve further profitable growth. Other Developments Finally, Christopher Kemball has today informed the Board that, after more thanfour years service on the Board of Directors, he intends to step down as aDirector with effect from 31 December 2006." Enquiries: Atkins +44 (0)1372 726140Keith ClarkeChief Executive Robert MacLeodGroup Finance Director James GarthwaiteGroup Communications Director Brunswick +44 (0)20 7404 5959Mike Smith NOTES TO EDITORS: Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) plans, designs and enables the delivery of complexcapital programmes for clients in the public and private sectors across theworld. Atkins is the largest multi-disciplinary consultancy in Europe; thelargest engineering consultancy in the UK; and the third largest design firm inthe world. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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