WYG on lookout for high value acquisitions

WYG is on the lookout to make a number of high value acquisitions to continue its path of growth.

The project management consultancy reported a return to adjusted pre-tax profit for the year ended 31 March 2013 this week which it said marks a “significant new milestone” in its progress. It also announced a new £18.2m contract win in Africa.

Group finance director, Sean Cummins, said the Leeds-based firm is now focused on delivering its promises and maintaining what it has achieved.

He said: “Our belief now is that we are in growth and that will be evident by our ability to cash generate this year to show we really are now in growth.

“We will be looking to make a number of very niche but high value acquisitions that will help push our margins forward. These will be small businesses but will help us grow.”

Revenue for the year was £125.7m (2012: £139.9m) and the adjusted operating profit was £1.8m (2012: loss of £3.5m).

The group said it had a strong finish to the reporting year across its four regions and based on its most recent reviews of the business, the team anticipates that the profit outturn for the current financial year will be approximately 10% higher than current market expectations for the year as a whole.

Chief executive officer of WYG, Paul Hamer, said: “We are quietly excited and satisfied about delivering this progress set out 12 months ago. We tend to manage business by putting milestones out that other people can see us by. We have achieved all our targets and now the confidence and momentum in our business has led us to upgrade our results and we anticipate we are 10 per cent ahead. It is largely because of the vision and confidence we have.”

A new management team was appointed in 2009 to restructure the group and for the UK, WYG said its big concern has been stability, however it has got itself back on track and is making “very good” market progress.

Mr Hamer said: “We are managing the same type of work we have always done but managing it better.”

WYG, which classes itself as a specialist in front-end enabling services, has seven core sectors including energy and waste, urban and commercial development and defence and justice.

The West Yorkshire business’s new contract, which is one of a number the firm will be announcing, has provided a boost to the business.

Mr Hamer said: “We look to do good things around the world, as we are very well matched to do this and we are lucky we have the key skills and can work alongside agencies to aid global challenges.

“We are able to make a significant social contribution and this is a real feel good factor for the business.

“This contract win is testament to the range and quality of our technical expertise. It also clearly demonstrates the group’s progress with our strategy of generating good quality international revenues and diversifying our client base through collaborative partnerships.

“With the large growth opportunities for us over the next 12 to 24 months, we are hoping that this contract win is not the first. We are excited about it because historically we’ve been focused on EU work but we have focused on diversifying and this has brought with it huge possibility.”

WYG is working with the Department for International Development (DFID) – a ministerial department which leads the UK government’s fight against world poverty, with a focus on health, education, economic growth and the private sector, governance and conflict, war and sanitation.

Mr Hamer said: “This contract win is testament to the range and quality of our technical expertise.”

CRIDF aims to develop small-scale infrastructure to improve access to water for many of the 95 million people living in a number of countries in the Southern Africa Development Community region.

The programme will seek to improve reliable access to water, the lack of which is already constraining human development and economic growth in the region and help mitigate expectations of increases in water demand, reduced supply and greater flood risk.

The £18.2m contract over two years also has the possibility of a further extension.