WYG CEO outlines ‘cautious but progressive outlook’ for the year ahead
Project management and technical consultancy WYG has said it expects revenue and operating profit for the financial year to March 31 to be in line with current market expectations of £155m and £3.5m respectively.
The Leeds-based firm said net debt at the year-end was expected to be broadly in line with market expectations and that separately disclosed costs for the year were expected to be around £8.5m.
In addition to the increased charge for PII claims, items are also expected to include approximately £3.2m of costs relating to the closure of the real estate advisory business that WYG acquired in October 2015, including £2.2m relating to the write down of acquired intangible assets.
The Group’s order book of secured contracts as at 28 February 2018 was £162m.
Today’s announcement comes after WYG issued a profit warning in November and in December posted a £2.8m pre-tax loss for the first half of its financial year.
Douglas McCormick, chief executive of WYG, said: “Our current trading performance is in line with recent market expectations and we are working hard to move the business to an improved and more sustainable level of profitability for the future.
“I am encouraged by the progress being achieved through a number of distinct actions we are taking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. We are therefore maintaining a cautious but progressive outlook for the coming financial year.”
WYG said its expectations for the financial year ending 31 March 2019 were that revenues would be at a similar level to this year and that the business will make a modest improvement in the level of operating profit it starts to see the benefit of actions taken to improve the efficiency and profitability of the business.
