Telecoms pays off for Amec

Amec's decision to establish a presence in the telecoms sector has paid off handsomely. From a standing start two years ago, it has now built up a forward workload worth £1bn, spread over the next five years.

Announcing Amec's annual results last week, chief executive Sir Peter Mason said: "The telecoms market is coming back strongly. Only the spend by telecom carriers is down as investment by users, such as corporate bankers, is up."

Amec unveiled a pre-tax profit of £39m (£81m) on a £4.3bn (£4.5bn) turnover. Profit was ground down by a series of exceptional costs totalling £66m.

Among these, Amec took a £25m hit for reorganisation and closure costs. Redundancies in the UK ran to 200, with a further 100 in the US. "We are now tidy," said Sir Peter.

Amec was one of the unsuccessful bidders for concessions offered by the London Underground PPP. "We bid and we lost," said Sir Peter. "While we never like to lose, I'm still not sure if, in this case, it was a good or a bad thing as we can't predict how Transport for London will behave.

"Contractors may do nicely or they may not. On balance, we'd rather miss a bad one [ie. contract] than fail to pick up a good one."

The opportunity for a second bite at the cherry, by buying into Amey's stake in Tube Lines, raised little enthusiasm in Sir Peter. "We've pretty much dismissed it," he said.