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28 Reviews
Operating and Financial Review
Segmental performance
Continued
Middle East
Our Middle East business continues to grow
very rapidly with both revenue and staff
numbers up by more than 40% on the
prior year. The market as a whole remains
buoyant driven by the high oil price with
particularly strong performances in Abu
Dhabi, Bahrain and Dubai. There has been
a significant volume of work on the Dubai
Metro project, secured last year, and our
work on the Red Line is nearing completion.
Work on the Green Line is over 75%
complete and during the year we have
secured a further project designing the links
between the metro and other modes of
transport. Our civil engineering rail business
in the Middle East is now actively pursuing
other opportunities in this growing market.
In the year we were awarded a number
of building design contracts including: the
60-plus-storey Sheth residential tower at
Maritime City (Dubai); the 77-storey
Tasameem mixed-use tower on Sheikh Zayed
Road (Dubai); Etihad Village, a ten tower
residential complex on Al Raha Beach in
Abu Dhabi; and Mahboula Tower, a hotel and
300 unit residential development in Kuwait.
Our regional portfolio of infrastructure
and masterplanning projects was further
strengthened with appointments for the
Al Sowa Island roads and bridges contract
(Abu Dhabi), the Seeb Corporate Park
development (Oman), and in Bahrain, the
Downtown Al Areen township and Bahrain
Marina mixed-use developments.
We continue to invest in the clear trend
towards lower carbon design. We are
progressing with the detailed design of
a 60-storey tower in the Dubai financial
centre planned to achieve 65% energy
savings and in April 2008 the three
29m-diameter turbines on the awardwinning
Bahrain World Trade Center,
in Manama, began turning.
There is strong demand for our services
and the year has been characterised by
the addition of several large projects to our
portfolio including those mentioned above.
After the year-end we have secured in
excess of £50m-worth of projects, including
the design and supervision of a 125-storey
tower block in Dubai.
Staff numbers in the region have exceeded
2,500 since the year-end, and we have
established a design office in the Philippines
to serve the Dubai market.
China
We continue to make progress in China
and the region as a whole performed in
line with expectations recording a modest
improvement over the prior year.
Demand for the services of our Hong Kong
infrastructure business contributed to better
than expected performance from that
business. The Hong Kong railway market is
set for a resurgence following the merger
of the two major railway corporations in
December 2007 and we were subsequently
appointed to undertake detailed design
work on the West Island Line.
The rapid pace of urbanisation in mainland
China presents opportunities and our urban
planning practice continues to penetrate
into second and third tier cities. Our
architecture business won its fifth airport
terminal design competition and we have
seen a surge in five-star hotel activity led
by our Songjiang Quarry hotel project.
We employ just over 400 staff in mainland
China which is broadly in line with last
year. This is a sound base which positions
us for growth as the market matures.
WS Atkins plc Annual Report 2008