Interim Results Announcement

Results summary table

¹ Before pre-tax non-underlying costs of £6.3m (H1 2017: credit of £15.9m). The H1 2017 statutory profit included a £21.0m credit from an exceptional contract dispute. Details of the non-underlying items are set out in note 6 of the consolidated financial information.

H1 2018 summary:

• Record first half revenue of £1,075m driven by constant currency growth of 15%
• Strong underlying constant currency operating profit growth of 22%
• Divisional performance
  • North America: strong growth in both revenue and profit, despite poor weather in the first quarter
  • EMEA: solid performance with profits maintained despite less revenue from large projects and a harsh winter
  • APAC: losses substantially reduced; profitable second quarter and an encouraging order book
• Tendering activity remains positive and the order book remains healthy – up 1% excluding the Caspian project, giving confidence for the full year
• Net debt increased to £367m, representing 1.9x annualised EBITDA, due to the Moretrench acquisition, strong organic growth and normal seasonal working capital outflows – currently expected to be around 1.5x at year end
• Underlying earnings per share increased 17% to 41.0p
• Interim dividend per share of 12.0p, up 24%, following the upward rebasing of the 2017 full year dividend

Alain Michaelis, Chief Executive, said:

“We remain encouraged by the group’s progress. Despite a harsh northern hemisphere winter, we are reporting a strong financial performance for the first half of the year. Broadly healthy markets, consistent operational delivery and business improvement projects have all contributed to this performance. We remain well positioned to benefit from the global trends of urbanisation and infrastructure growth and we continue to advance our strategic objectives. We are confident of making further progress in the second half.”