Arup's profit slumps £67m

Engineering consultant Arup has seen a slide of nearly £67m in its operating profit in the year to 31 March 2011.

This year, Arup Group posted a profit of £24.6m compared with £91.3m last year. However, last year’s profit was boosted by exceptional gains of £80.8m from moving its pension scheme to a defined contribution model.

The UK saw the largest slide in profit - a fall of £63m to just £6.1m of pre-tax profit on turnover of £271.9m.

Meanwhile profit in other regions grew with Asia and Australasia the strongest performers recording profit up 36% and 17% respectively.

Philip Dilley, chairman of Arup, said: “These results reflect our strengths as a global player. They are in line with our forecasts for what we knew would be a challenging year. We are particularly pleased to have maintained global income levels, which underlines the fact that our clients continue to see the value we bring.”

Total global turnover rose 8.7% to £966.4m.

“Looking ahead, economic volatility is set to persist in some markets, so the board will maintain our focus on core strategy and the bottom line so we can return value to our staff and maintain our financial strength. We remain confident in our future as we are winning high quality work worldwide, we have a robust forward order book and we remain committed to our key asset – our people,” said Dilley.