Ricardo says profit to beat forecasts

16th Jul 2013 08:18

Engineering consultancy Ricardo said overall customer activity in the final two months of the year has been positive with a good pipeline of work across most of the group.As a result, it expects revenue levels for the full financial year to be above the prior year, both including and excluding Ricardo-AEA, and profit performance to be above market expectations. Ricardo said it had won recent contracts from the passenger car, defence, power generation and marine engine sectors.It added that Ricardo-AEA is now fully established within the group and the performance and integration of the business has exceeded original expectations.CEO Dave Shemmans commented: "We continue to secure and deliver business for a broad range of clients, sectors and geographies in line with our strategy. The pipeline includes the return of the major automotive clients looking to address the global market, CO2 legislative requirements and the introduction of high performance derivatives." "Market conditions are improving although Europe remains challenging, and against this backdrop our pipeline, balance sheet and operational delivery give us confidence of further progress in the current year."Ricardo said its balance sheet remains strong with good cash generation leading to a net cash balance similar to the prior year, after completing the AEA Europe acquisition for £18.0m in November 2012.CJ