News

	Statutory results		Underlying* results
	2020	2019	2020	2019
Revenue	£1,072.9m	£911.1m	£1,072.9m	£911.1m
Operating profit^	£117.6m	£114.8m	£133.2m	£124.9m
Profit after tax	£106.5m	£113.9m	£113.7m	£111.5m
Earnings per share	18.7p	20.1p	20.0p	19.7p
Full year dividend per share	2.2p	6.6p	2.2p	6.6p
Total funded order backlog1			£3,104.9m	£3,133.6m
Total orders			£2,227.4m	£776.4m
Orders excluding LTPA amendments2			£972.1m	£776.4m
Net cash inflow from operations^	£166.5m	£134.6m	£177.8m	£135.3m
Net cash^			£84.7m	£160.5m
*Definitions of the Group’s ‘Alternative Performance Measures’ can be found in the glossary. ^ Prior year restated due to the retrospective adoption of the new accounting standard, IFRS 16, in respect of leases; refer to Note 1. 1 2019 adjusted to include £1.3bn LTPA amendment signed 5 April 2019. 2 Includes share of Joint Ventures, excludes £1.3bn LTPA contract amendment signed 5 April 2019

Delivered fourth year of growth

• Orders up 25% (excluding the LTPA amendment); largest annual order intake in 9 years
• Revenue up 18%, 10% on an organic basis
• Underlying operating profit up 7%, 2% on an organic basis, underlying EPS up 2%
• 133% underlying cash conversion pre-capex

Driving growth through disciplined execution of strategy

• Secured £168m of orders under Engineering Delivery Partner (EDP) contract
• Won four major long-term contracts in UK, US and Belgium
• Completed acquisitions of MTEQ in the US and NSC in the UK
• Grown international revenue from 21% to 31% in four years
• Improved employee engagement by 10%, driving a high performance culture

Strategic response to COVID-19 crisis over the coming year and beyond

• Robust action to build resilience to immediate challenges
• Partnering with our customers to respond to their evolving priorities
• Engaging our employees to adapt our working practices
• Accelerating capabilities to meet the needs of a new world
• As previously announced, guidance for Group performance and dividend decision later in the year

Steve Wadey, Group Chief Executive Officer said:

“Our immediate priority in response to the COVID-19 crisis remains protecting the health and wellbeing of our people who are doing a fantastic job continuing to deliver critical work for our customers. The impact on our performance has been limited to date, predominantly in our shorter-cycle products business. We have taken prudent actions to boost the resilience of our company by managing cash outflows and reducing costs in the short-term, whilst ensuring we continue to deliver for our customers.” 

“We delivered a fourth consecutive year of top-line growth. Our strategy is working to successfully become a truly integrated global company. With strong order intake, organic profit growth and net cash on balance sheet, we enter this period of uncertainty in a strong position enabling us to be agile and proactive in addressing both the short-term challenges and pursuing medium- to long-term growth.”

Preliminary results presentation

There will be a webcast presentation of the preliminary results at 1000 hours UK time on 21 May 2020. The webcast is available at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EUdJ4Q-URMGpkjiC-EMfFA

For further information, please contact:

Ian Brown, Group Head of Investor Relations: +44 (0) 7908 251123

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (Media enquiries): +44 (0) 20 7638 9571

Chris Barrie :+44 (0)7968 727 289

Ellen Wilton: +44 (0)7921 352 851