WS Atkins trades well though Middle East remains shaky

8th Feb 2017 07:52

(ShareCast News) - Design, engineering and project management consultancy WS Atkins provided its third quarter trading update for the period from 1 October 2016 to date on Wednesday, saying it traded in line with expectations during the period with continued currency benefits as anticipated, and the outlook for the full year remaining unchanged.The FTSE 250 firm said trading performance in its UK and Europe business continued strongly through the third quarter, with good delivery on a number of projects in the period."We continue to address strong, albeit competitive, markets as the Government supports infrastructure projects in energy, high speed rail, highways and airports."During the period we were pleased to complete the sale of our minority PFI investment in the M25 motorway to Edge Orbital Holdings 2 Limited, for a cash consideration of £66.3m."Atkins' North American business enjoyed another good trading period, buoyed by transportation work on Project NEON and its design of the Purple Line light rail project."We continue to expect the business to deliver strong revenue growth and an improved operating margin for the full year."Looking beyond this, we are encouraged by the proposed level of infrastructure spend and are focused on securing larger scale opportunities."The performance of the company's Middle East region was in line with board expectations during the third quarter, the company claimed."Challenging market conditions remain, though we expect to continue to deliver to expectations for the year as a whole."While we remain cautious around the outlook for the region, given competitive markets and ongoing uncertainty as to the timing of pipeline opportunities, our strong market position and reputation for successful delivery continue to serve us well."And in the Asia Pacific region, performance was stable in the period."We have recently secured some additional design packages of work on the third runway at Hong Kong International Airport and architectural wins in southeast Asia."The company added that its nuclear business, which represents around 70% of its energy segment, performed well in the period."We are encouraged to see an improved project flow at Sellafield and the US Tier 1 decommissioning market is developing well for us, following the acquisition of PP&T."Elsewhere, there are early, encouraging signs of a stabilisation in the oil and gas market."The group said its financial position remained strong, and was confident that its focus on differentiation in nuclear, digital innovation and advisory would deliver further growth.