Customers coming back to Ricardo

26th Sep 2011 07:48

Ricardo's full year results reveal the consultant engineer saw a welcome return some of its former clients in the car manufacturing business.The company saw revenues rise 21% to £196.5m in the year to the end of June from £162.8m the year before. Technical Consulting revenues increased to £144.3m compared to £124.5m in the prior year as the automotive sector activity began to recover towards pre-recession levels. The US Technical Consulting business saw a slower recovery, however, than other geographical areas, with orders slowing in the second half of the year.Pre-tax profits rose 43% to £15.4m from £10.8m a year earlier, giving plenty of leeway for the firm to boost its full-year dividend by 7% to 11.5p per share.Combined with a cash position of £1.5m in net funds, up from a deficit of £7.8m a year earlier, and an order book running at £107m, up from £101m at the end of June 2010, the firm appears in good health.Net assets at 30 June 2011 were £89.6m compared to £64.8m for the prior year. A large part of the increase (£14.8m) was due to the reduction in the pension deficit net of taxation. Capital expenditure in the year was £9.1m, up from £7.6m the year before, including £2.1m for new business systems. At the end of the year the firm's capital commitments were £0.7m (2010: £1.3m)."In the year we welcomed back some of our long term clients from the automotive sector, collaborated with Force Protection Europe on the Foxhound Light Protected Patrol Vehicle to win a competitive tender from the UK MoD, launched the McLaren supercar engine into production and established a long term engineering relationship with Jaguar Land Rover," Dave Shemmans, the chief executive said."Overall the market for Ricardo remains positive and active, in spite of a continuing uncertain global economy," Shemmans added.BS