黑洞社区

The global boss of Arcadis has called for the next prime minister to provide certainty over levelling up, saying the policy could allow the firm to play 鈥渁 significant role鈥� in investing in the north of England.

Peter Oosterveer, global chief executive of the consultancy giant, said: 鈥淚 make an assumption that 鈥榣evelling up鈥� means repurposing existing assets or repurposing neighbourhoods, to create more liveable spaces and if that is indeed the case, then it could actually mean a tremendous opportunity for us. I think businesses would happily invest in something like this.鈥�

Oosterveer was speaking to 黑洞社区 after Arcadis published its half-year results this morning showing a 24% increase in global post-tax profit, and 11% increase in turnover. This was fuelled in part by unquantified 鈥渟trong鈥� growth in the UK, as well as in North America and Australia.

Oosterveer said stability and continuity in terms of the levelling up regulations and plans, along with some government funding, could allow businesses to invest more.

However, he said he fears that the policy may not be popular under the next prime minister: 鈥淪ometimes the problem with political cycles is they tend to change in terms of what people are willing to support and what regulations stay in place.鈥�

Arcadis鈥� interim results for the six months to 30 June show pre-tax profit increased to 拢120m from 拢96.9m the previous year. Turnover increased from 拢1.66bn to 拢1.85bn over the same period.

Oosterveer said the firm has grown in the UK faster than in any other country over the past two years, and now with around 5,000 employees, is the second largest Arcadis operation, behind the US.

He said the impact of Brexit and the pandemic has not affected Arcadis鈥� growth as much as feared because of 鈥渢he spot we have in the market鈥� and the fact the firm has benefited from work on large infrastructure projects, such as HS2.

Its statement said strong performance, particularly in the transportation, energy and industrial manufacturing markets had helped increase its operating earnings margin from 9.1% to 9.3%.

Oosterveer said shortages of labour and materials have not had a big impact on Arcadis because it does more than 鈥減ure鈥� construction work.

鈥淚f I was only depending on construction and construction activities, I would get a little nervous because shortage of labour and shortage of materials are ultimately going to impact the continuation of new programmes, because clients will at a point in time say 鈥榠f I can鈥檛 secure the people or if I can鈥檛 secure the material, I鈥檓 not sure that I鈥檓 going to go ahead with my investment.鈥欌��

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But he added: 鈥淭he construction market being under pressure has really not impacted us because we play fundamentally in all steps of the value chain from early identification and having an idea to the management of assets, our exposure to pure construction is relatively small.鈥�

Oosterveer said Arcadis is focusing on mega-trends such as climate change, urbanisation, digitisation and societal expectation.

Since 1 January, Arcadis has restructured its operations, moving away from regional operations to three cross-region 鈥済lobal business areas鈥�, for 鈥渞esilience鈥� (environment and water), 鈥減laces鈥� (including buildings) and 鈥渕obility鈥� (transport and infrastructure). Arcadis said in its statement this has helped increase 鈥済lobal collaboration, scaling and cross-selling of services across business areas鈥�.

The firm has recently pulled out of Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Thailand, where it had businesses of 鈥渓imited financial size鈥�.

Arcadis last week completed the acquisition of Canadian tech design firm IBI Group, which Oosterveer said will allow clients in the UK and elsewhere to access more digital tools.