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| Metronet blamed for Atkins' loss  Britain's largest engineering consultancy WS Atkins plc announced preliminary unaudited results for the six months ended 30 September 2006. Revenue has grown by 17% to £605.5m. Operating margins on a comparable basis improved to 5.3%3 from 5.0%. Profit before tax from continuing operations and continuing Joint Ventures (excluding the results of the Metronet Enterprise) up 18% to £31.3m. Metronet Enterprise, the venture charged with the 30-year upgrade of the London Underground, results impacted by operational issues and continued delays in the stations capital programme. Metronet's profit contribution was down £1.4 million on the first half of last year - it produced a loss of £0.4 million compared to a £1 million profit previously.The recovery in the performance of the Metronet Enterprise, 20 per cent owned by Atkins, remains crucial to its eventual success and the realisation of Atkins' returns. Whilst some improvements have been made, much still remains to be done to enable Metronet to achieve its goal of being economic and efficient overall at the end of the first review period in September 2010. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |