Wilkinson Eyre profit slumps

Wilkinson Eyre has said it is expecting to land a number of overseas contracts by the end of the year as the firm looks to brush off fears over Brexit.

In accounts signed off three weeks after the UK voted to leave the EU, the firm said “a number of international commercial and infrastructure opportunities [are] expected to come to fruition in the coming months”.

Around three-quarters of the firm’s business is in the UK but the firm said: “[We] have mitigated political and economic risk by spreading the fee base across several regions and this continues following the referendum concerning the EU.”

The remainder of its work is spread across Asia Pacific and North America with the firm having overseas offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Turnover at the firm in the year to March slipped by 10% to £20.1 million while pre-tax profits fell 20% to just over £5 million.

Wilkinson Eyre is carrying out a number of projects in the UK including the relocation of Victoria coach station in London, the new Crossrail station at Liverpool Street and upgrading capacity at Bank station.

It said it has won a place on a framework for a series of bridges in Dublin and has been asked to work on schemes for technology firm Dyson at its headquarters in Wiltshire as well as its offices in London. And it recently won planning for a 275m tower on Sydney’s waterfront (pictured).

The number of staff at the business stayed flat at 187 while the salary of the highest-paid director, who is not named, slipped to £115,000 from £258,000 last time.