The building consultancy Atkins said the performance of its Middle East operations has underpinned its sales and profits.
The company reported flat sales of £1.75 billion (Dh9.95bn) during the year to March 31, but underlying profits (discounting a one-off gain last year of £10.5 million), were up 14.6 per cent to £121.9m.
Sales in most major regions fell – in the UK by about 9.5 per cent, Europe 10.6 per cent and North America by 10.4 per cent.
In the Middle East, however, revenue increased by 29 per cent to £216.7m and operating profit leapt by 56 per cent to £22.5m.
Headcount was also up by 29 per cent, and the company now employs almost 2,700 people across the region – 1,000 of whom are in the UAE.
The company said the improved performance was a result of focusing on rail, infrastructure and buildings work in its three key markets of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
It added that it had made “good progress” on design work for the Riyadh Metro and Doha Metro lines. At Doha, it is delivering designs for the Red Line South and the Gold Line – the latter of which is a US$135m deal won in July last year.
“There continues to be good demand for metro projects across the region, with further opportunities to work selectively for design and build contractors within our core markets,” the company said.
It added that property work also grew strongly last year in the UAE, which was partly attributed to Dubai’s Expo 2020 win. Its projects in Dubai include consultancy work on the $3bn Habtoor City project and Emaar Properties’ new Dubai Opera House district.
“Abu Dhabi is a bit flat and certainly some of the infrastructure projects have gone slower than we thought, but on the Dubai side there are much bigger schemes coming through that we can get involved in… multi-use, mixed-use and a lot of urban development along the canal and the creek,” said Middle East chief executive Simon Moon.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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