黑洞社区

Engineering group WSP increased revenue and profitability by over 50% in its first full year of trading after being bought by Canadian consultant Genivar, the firm has announced.

WSP was acquired by Toronto-listed Genivar in a deal valued at 拢278m in August 2012 to create a 15,000-strong firm. But the combined firm took WSP鈥檚 brand from 1 January this year due to the former firm鈥檚 wider global presence.

WSP posted revenue of CAN$2bn (拢1.1bn) for the year to 31 December 2013, up 60% on the previous year鈥檚 CAN$1.3bn (拢685m), a figure that did not take into account a full year of trading for the newly-merged firm.

Underlying profit, known as Ebitda, grew by 58% to CAN$171.1m (拢93.2m), up from CAN$108.6m (拢59.2m) the previous year.

The firm鈥檚 UK division posted revenue of 拢169m and Ebitda of 拢15.6m.

Its profit margin of 9.2% was below the average margin across WSP鈥檚 global business, which was 12.2%.

Comparative like-for-like figures for 2012 were not provided, but WSP鈥檚 UK managing director Mark Naysmith told 黑洞社区 the firm grew 7% last year, due to 鈥渋mproved performance in our property and infrastructure divisions鈥�.

Naysmith said he expected further growth in UK revenue this year as the property and infrastructure divisions continue to grow, with growth spreading from London to the regions, while the UK division was targeting an 鈥�11 to 11.5% profit margin by the end of 2015鈥�.

He said growth in profitability would come from 鈥済rowth in the sectors we鈥檙e in and making the business more efficient and effective鈥�.

He added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e also seeing fee increases, particularly in front-end planning and in the commercial market.鈥�

Naysmith said the global business鈥� rebrand to WSP 鈥渟poke volumes about the strength of the WSP brand鈥�.

Although WSP鈥檚 headquarters is in Montreal, Naysmith said each regional business 鈥� including the UK business 鈥� is 鈥渕anaged autonomously, providing we align ourselves with the group strategy鈥�.

WSP also announced it has hired Simon Kydd from Balfour Beatty to become UK head of healthcare.

WSP鈥檚 results came as it announced it has acquired 1,700-strong Canadian engineering and geomatic surveying firm Focus for CAN$366m (拢199m) to boost its presence in the booming oil and gas sector.