Atkins restates confidence for future despite drop in revenue
ENGINEERING firm Atkins yesterday reported a 9.2 per cent drop in revenue for the six months to September 2014, down to £831m from £915m in the same period of 2013.
Profit before tax also took a hit, dropping 28.8 per cent from £54.8m to £39m. However, Uwe Krueger, chief executive at Atkins, pointed to the underlying results, which showed a two per cent increase in revenue excluding the effects of currency, acquisitions and disposals. Krueger highlighted the company’s disposal of construction business Peter Brown last year as having an effect on this year’s numbers.
“With like-for-like comparisons, the numbers are very good,” he said.
The firm upped its dividend by 4.8 per cent, a move Krueger said “signals the confidence that we have in our future”.
He added: “We would say we are in line with market expectations, and those are pretty good.”