Amec profits tumble despite turnover rise

Amec has unveiled a large dip in profits. The latest figures, released this morning (Thursday), show pre-tax profit for the first six months of 2003 well down at £27m despite turnover rising slightly to £2.3bn.

However the overall margin of just 1.1% has not dimmed the group's enthusiasm for its strategic transformation from a regional UK construction group (when Sir Peter Mason took the reins in 1997) into "one of the world's largest engineering services companies".

The purchase of the outstanding 54% of Spie in March completed that transformation.

Amec has hit troubled waters in its client support services where consulting and design operations generated an operating profit of £3.5m, well down on the figure of £9.0m in the first half of 2002.

The group's problems were compounded by its construction management subsidiary's results: turnover fell to £110m (from a previous figure of £280m), leading to a £3.4m operating loss.

The investments division came to the rescue, with the PPP portfolio generated an operating profit of £4.6m, well ahead of last year's £1.7m, as a result of increased contributions from Amec's operational concession companies.