The interim management statement covers the period from 1 October 2013 to date.
The new Australian government’s prioritisation of infrastructure has led to a pipeline of large projects. Hyder said that its bidding activity has been high, but the process is proving more protracted and new contract awards have been slower than originally anticipated. This, together with the weakening of the Australian dollar against sterling by 25% over the year, has affected reported profits and results in the second half.
In the Middle East, the order book has grown further. “We have benefited from the award of the new contracts, but project delays have meant that the levels of profitability will not be as high as we were expecting and will affect current year results,” said the company.
In the UK results are ahead of both the prior year and the plan. In particular, Hyder reports that the rail business has performed strongly, and has recently secured a number of frameworks with Network Rail where fees are expected to be more than £25m over the next five years.
In Germany, the company anticipates a small loss in the second half and that goodwill on acquisitions prior to 2008 of approximately £6m will be written off as a non-cash exceptional item in the year end results.
In China the business remains profitable.
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