Engineering giant Atkins has announced an increase in revenue and operating profits however it ended 11% down on last year for profit after tax (£85.7m), with a 6.6% fall in pre-tax profits (£106.7m).
In a statement the group shrugged off the fall, observing that it had inched closer to its profit margin target of 8% in full-year results for the year to March 2015.
‘We have delivered good results with solid growth in profitability and excellent cash performance. Margin progression has continued towards our 8% goal and the outlook remains positive,’ Atkins chief executive Uwe Krueger said.
Atkins said the fall in pre-tax profits did not reflect the groups underlying performance and was attributable to £15.6m of exceptional costs incurred over the year.
Underlying pre-tax profit - which stripped out these exceptional costs - rose 14.6% to £121.9m, up from £106.4m.
Revenues for the full year rose by 0.4 per cent to £1,756.6 while ‘organic, constant currency revenue [is] up 4.6% and underlying operating profit up 15.2%’.
In a statement the group boasted of a ‘strong performance in Middle East, Asia Pacific and Energy’ while ‘North American performance improving [and] UK and Europe mixed’, with the UK highways and transportation business appearing to benefit from increased government investment and continued signs of growth in the sector.
In the UK, the firm posted a 2% rise in operating profit to £59.4m, up from £58.1m, while revenue declined 9% to £835.6m, down from £922m. The UK division’s operating margin increased to 7.1%, up from 6.3%.
