Amey UK unveils £78m pre-tax profit

Amey UK has unveiled a pre-tax profit of £78m on a turnover of £1.5bn. The figures cover the 12 months to 31 December 2008.

In the previous period a turnover of £1.4bn generated a profit of £103m.

After a restructure, Amey’s business now comprises:

three market-facing divisions:

• Local Government
• Inter-Urban
• Built Environment

two specialist divisions:

• Logistics
• Consulting

plus two stand-alone divisions:

• Tube Services – which manages Tube Lines
• Ventures – containing the rest of Amey’s investment portfolio

Among the summary of achievements in 2008, the company says that being ranked as “the top-performing contractor on Network Rail Track Renewals framework” was one of the highlights

The group is owned by Ferrovial Servicios, a subsidiary of Gruppo Ferrovial the infrastructure and services company based in Spain and listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange.

Amey UK’s turnover divides between contributions from:

• Local Government  £290m
• Inter-Urban   £250m
• Built Environment  £120m
• Logistics    £50m
• Consulting   £60m
• Tube Services    £550m
• Ventures    £170m

The operating profits achieved by the various divisions were:

• Local Government  £8m
• Inter-Urban   £16m
• Built Environment  £6m
• Logistics    £14m
• Consulting   £6m
• Tube Services    £38m
• Ventures    £3m

Amey UK is carrying £360m of goodwill on its books.

The group’s PPP/PFI assets ran to a value of £1.2bn which was down from the previous figure of £1.0bn while the tally of the loans for its PPP/PFI assets ran to £1.4bn, representing a rise from the 2007 figure of £1.2bn.

There was a reduction of the operating profit in Tube Services “reflecting a planned lower level of capital projects”. As a result the operating margin fell from a previous figure of 7.5% to 6.4%.

During the year, Amey received £9.5m (which was included within operating profit) in full and final settlement of amounts relating to the Croydon Tramlink project where Amey was the contractor.

The group had a cash in-flow of £38m (figure in 2007: £53m).

The highest paid director received £1.1m in all.

Four of Amey’s directors are in a defined benefit pension scheme.

The group’s pension scheme deficit doubled to £122m as a result, in part, to the “fair value of assets” dropping from £480m to £380m.

Curiously in an era of greater longevity, over the past two years, Amey has pulled down its pension fund requirements from £610m in 2006 to £550m in 2007 and then again to £500m in the past 12-month period.