Sale of AMEC SPIE likely to go ahead in second quarter 0f 2006.

Amec plc says that trading in 2005 was in line with expectations, and that its outlook for 2006 remained unchanged. It said that the order book for Oil and Gas and Project Solutions businesses stood at £2.9bn, up from £2.4bn at the same time the previous year. The strong demand in Oil and Gas, coupled with volume growth and an improvement in margins in engineering and technical services, offset a poor performance in some UK construction markets, particularly roads.

The group said it had received an encouraging number of expressions of interest for AMEC SPIE, its engineering services business, and that it anticipated the sale being completed in the second quarter of 2006.

Plans to restructure the remaining business, including a possible split into two, separating energy and process industries from UK infrastructure, will be updated before preliminary results are announced on 15 March.