WYG spies opportunities despite gloom
A STRONG balance sheet and a global spread of business makes WYG well placed to weather the economic storm, according to chief executive Paul Hamer.
The project management and consultancy business today reported revenues of £68.5m and an operating loss before exceptionals of £2.5m for the six months to the end of September.
WYG has this year completed major financial and operational reorganisations and Mr Hamer said the firm was now well placed to take advantages of opportunities and withstand global economic uncertainty.
Mr Hamer told TheBusinessDesk.com: “One of the key successes that we have achieved over the last two and a half years is that from a sector perspective we are about 37% private sector, 26% public sector and the rest what we would call the donor sector. Our work is about 53% in the UK, 6% in Ireland and 40% overseas.
“So we have got funding diversity and we have got geographic diversity.”
WYG this morning reported cash holdings of £24m compared to debt of £38.5m which Mr Hamer said was critical at a range of levels, most fundamentally in terms of stopping its credit rating being an issue in contract bids.
“When people look at the balance sheet they can see we are a very sustainable company.
“People assume that we are going to start buying businesses but my position is that WYG needs to earn the right to grow and that means over the next 18 months we need to demonstrate we can organically grow the business and we then build the credibility that allows us to go back to our shareholders and say we are ready to buy.
“We are making acquisitions but we are acquiring people and teams rather than businesses. We have acquired a strong transport planning team from one of our competitors so we we are targeting people to build our business rather than following the previous strategy of buying business and top line revenue.”
WYG also announced this morning that it was appointing Sean Cummins as its new group finance director. Mr Cummins held the same role at Scott Wilon until it was bought by URS Corporation in September last year. He has previously held FD roles with Yule Catto & Co and BTR Power Systems.
He will replace David Wilton who has decided to step down following the financial restructuring of the business.
WYG chairman Mike McTighe said: “We are delighted to welcome someone of Sean’s calibre to the Board. He has extensive relevant public company experience and has deep knowledge of the global consultancy sector through his time at Scott Wilson. Following the capital restructuring completed in July, WYG has entered a new growth phase in its development and Sean is ideally equipped to help lead WYG in the execution of its recently articulated international strategy.
“On behalf of the Board and in a personal capacity, I would like to extend sincere thanks to David for his invaluable contribution to WYG. With his corporate finance background, he played a key role over a very challenging two and half year period that culminated in July’s capital restructuring. We now have a very sound platform from which to grow and, for that, David should take considerable credit.”
