Aukett Fitzroy Robinson's £2.4m pre-tax profit mirrors previous year

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson, the architects and interior design specialists with a listing on the Stock Exchange, has made a pre-tax profit of £2.4m, which is exactly the same as in the previous year.

Turnover was £23m, rise of £3m over the 2007 figure of £20m.

Aukett’s latest financial results cover the 12 months to 30 September 2008.

Shareholders are to receive a dividend 5% higher than last time round. The group has no debts and holds cash to the value of £400,000.

Nicholas Thompson, chief executive, said it was “a creditable result in what has proved to be a difficult year” and the challenge ahead is going to be to keep funds rolling in “in a market with fewer opportunities in the short term”.

There has been a push for more overseas work “where there were more favourable development opportunities”.

As a result, turnover from non-UK destinations grew by 53% – and this after a 27% surge in growth in the previous year.

The main change was in new Middle East projects notably in the UAE which accounted for 23% (2007: 1%) of total revenues. UAE revenues amounted to £5.2m (2007: £0.2m).

“As we outlined earlier last year the UK operation came under pressure from project cancellations and the slow down in new commissions during the latter months of 2007,” said Thompson.

“Revenues advanced by only 8% as the financial crises impacted upon commercial property investment activity. The new revenue streams from the UAE generally compensated for the reduction in UK revenues. The UK operation currently carries out all services for Middle East projects.

“It will be necessary to further review our UK cost base in view of the decline in local project revenues to the extent that this is not offset by revenue generation and resourcing in non-UK project destinations.”

Internationally, Russia grew revenues by 72%. However this did not translate into growth in operating profit, which fell by 43%. Delays and cancellations due to availability of development capital affected projects in the former CIS state of Kazakhstan and regionally in Krasnodar.

“Notwithstanding the general slowdown in Moscow, we believe that our business has strengthened with the recent signing for the project stage (planning) of a new 4,000,000ft² office complex for a major Russian financial institution,” said Thompson.

“Despite the slow down in the global economic environment and, with the UK in a potentially long term recession, we remain committed to our objective to increase our "net" revenue to £25m by 2010.”