The group booked a record £1.6bn of new orders in the first half of the year, taking its order book to £3.52bn and it reported a 40 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £12.9m.
Amey is negotiating or bidding for 144 'potential opportunities', Brian Staples, chief executive, said as the results were announced. Of these, 38 are PFI/PPP schemes being developed by Amey Ventures.
Staples said he remained confident that PPPs would continue as he could not see an alternative route for the government to take.But he warned that increased union resistance could delay the trend to private outsourcing.
Despite a record number of orders since December 2000 and numerous contracts over the period, operating profit in the public sector services division of the group, fell from £5.8m to £2.6m. The decline was due to an increase in writedowns on the cost of unsuccessful bids, which include contracts for the BBC and Meteorological Office. Although there was a small increase in profits in the private sector service from £3.5m to £3.8m, performance in the division was undermined by the cost of withdrawing from conventional construction projects.
Source
The Facilities Business
