But engineer says ‘additional charges on small number of projects’ eats into profit
Revenue at Arup hit a five-year high last year but the firm said profit was hit by several jobs racking up additional costs.
In accounts for Arup Group, now filed at Companies House, the company said turnover for the year to March 2026 was up 5% to £2.3bn.
But the firm said pre-tax profit was down 41% to £26m which it said was in part down to a “trading performance impacted by additional charges recognised on a small number of isolated projects to reflect expected future costs and risks”.
It said year-end cash fell from £260m to £156m which it said was down to “a significant growth in investment spend to create the foundations for a more efficient firm, supporting higher quality delivery and better use of new technologies”.
The engineer, which had spent close to £45m on redundancies in the previous two years, had more than 17,200 staff – up from 16,930 last time – although it doesn’t include 1,100 Hong Kong staff who are “engaged by the Group under arrangements governed by Hong Kong government regulations”.
In a note accompanying the accounts, Jerome Frost, the firm’s first ever chief executive, said: “While there was a decrease in cash balances and profit before tax due to the growth of and provision made on a small number of isolated projects, our financial performance reflects the resilience of our business and our ability to adapt to continued global volatility and to adapt to continued global volatility and disruption
“We have balanced challenging headwinds in some areas - for example a slowdown in the property market – with a focus on growth areas such as water, science, industry and technology, including healthcare.”
The accounts show that its biggest business remains the UK with revenue up 3% to £674m
Workloads in the Americas, its second biggest market, were up 4% to £461m but in Asia they stayed flat at £450m.
No comments yet