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Reviews 29
Europe
As a whole, the Europe portfolio performed
in line with expectations, delivering a
significant improvement over the prior year
with all five businesses ending the year
trading profitably.
Our key focus during the year has been
to strengthen the local management teams
and much progress has been made. The
two largest businesses, Denmark with
280 staff and Ireland with 180 staff, have
performed well. In Denmark our work
on the Copenhagen Metro City Circle Line,
where we are working on the transportation
systems package, is progressing well. Our
Swedish business, which employs some
110 staff, was able to record a modest
profit in the last quarter having made
management changes following a very
disappointing start to the year.
Outlook
The outlook for this segment remains very
good, especially in the Middle East. Our
work in hand at year-end is very good at
50% (2007: 61%) of budgeted revenue
for 2008/09. The reduction was anticipated
and principally relates to the Dubai Metro
project which represented a substantial
portion of last year’s secured workload.
The investment boom in the Middle East
region is set to continue with the rate of
growth tempered only by the availability
of appropriate resource. The scale of the
projects that we are working on continues
to grow significantly and we are increasing
our service offering to meet client demands.
It is also likely that the drive to lower the
carbon footprint of buildings will be pushed
further by clients in the Middle East.
The outlook for China and Europe is
improving as our investments in the local
management teams position these
businesses to take advantage of the
emerging opportunities.
Introduction Reviews Governance Financial Statements Investor Information
WS Atkins plc Annual Report 2008