WS Atkins Share Discussion Threads

[book5] 11/8/2012 22:47

ATK is a good place for those mid managers that practice plagiarism...


Decisive changes must take place, slow progress ahead

500p in the horizon, competitors will gain at atk expense

sell

[galles] 06/8/2012 17:56

Whoppy,

Appreciate your views and your take on the happenings within the organisation especially on the resources and projects in the ME.

I too share the same view in that since the new CEO came on board and with his past experience, ATK has changed from a very defensive, solid, well run organisation to an aggressive, rapidly expanding (organic or through acquisitions) organisation. In a sense, that's understandable as the previous CEO was brought in to bring stability to ATK and with that objective fulfilled, the next stage is, in the board's view, to expand, whilst not relying so much on the UK market but others. The new CEO's CV seems to be one that focuses on rapid growth and perhaps that's the reason why he was brought in.

No doubt there will be teething problems with acquisitions, especially so with a massive one in PBSJ, and no doubt there will be financial 'hits' when trying to crack markets, the ME market is highly competitive as the opportunities there are not comparable to say the UK market and is worth the time and energy to ensure a sound foothold is sought. The Burj Al Arab was a financial disaster but look how much publicity it brought the company. Of course the blacklisting letter is a big negative (that's BIG negative if it's true!) but let's see how ATK handles it. Whilst I think expanding abroad is a viable way to grow and diversify, the speed of its 'attempted' expansion and the lack of focus is what I have doubts about and can potentially send them back focusing on their home turf - UK. We shall see...

[whoppy] 02/8/2012 08:24

Galles,

I work there. Strategy for Atkins is to grow internationally but with that comes increased risk but it is something they need to do to maintain headcount and revenue and offset the stagnating UK market. The Olympics was a boon for Atkins and now that has been completed they need to find big projects elsewhere. They find it difficult to resource projects and have a just in time policy when it comes to drafting in staff. They rely heavily on agency staff and there turnover of full time staff is quite high which impacts on projects and leaves them open to claims due to continuity issues in delivering projects. They outsource/offshore a lot of work to Bangalore and their skills and quality of work is questionable with corrections having to be constantly made which eats into budgets. PBSJ acquisition as part of their expansion strategy is not going as well as they would like and the Atkins brutal management style are making redundancies and have lost the goodwill of staff, much as they did with UK staff. Atkins have a bad reputation when it comes to hiring and firing.
It's all par for the course with these type of consultants and while they believe they have a strategy to see them through these difficult times perhaps attempting to grow the business in the difficult economic circumstances is biting off more than they can chew with all the inherent risks involved.

The ME business is having problems with receiving payments and projects are becoming more ownerous in terms of contract milestones and being able to collect monies. The blacklisting letter is something I can't comment on but is a reflection of the responsibilities and delivery demands/competitiveness these type of consultants now face and must honour for them to maintain their reputation. Competent of management at all levels is key, but unfortunately is poor at Atkins with most able to take backseats and avoid responsibility which is a refelection on the culture. Jury is still out on the new CEO and his previous posting doesn't fill you with confidence. The quality of workers are generally good, apart from Bangalore, and this is having to be micro managed by UK staff which costs time and resources.

[galles] 02/8/2012 00:29

Whoppy, what you've disclosed sound worrying, especially when the American and ME markets are the ones the company is targeting. Would you be able to expand further on the blacklisting letter as I can't see that to be news one can obtain as easily as say the Cambridge bus scheme. Even Jeddah airport's financials appear to be knowledge only to those within the company. Do you have close ties to the company? Just trying to gauge how credible the information is for my own assessment of the company.

Thanks in advance.

[whoppy] 01/8/2012 11:49

yeah they are finding it difficult in North America having splurged out a borrowing of £170m on PBSJ and then realising there are too many costs/overheads and not enough work coming from the US government. Employees over there are hacked off and all the best people have left or are leaving. They have got huge pension liabilities/deficit aswell of some $300m which they need to address. They recently raised money in the US which they are using to paydown their UK bank facility rather than growing the business which say's a lot. They also have loads of claims for multi million £'s which they will have to make a provision for, Cambridge bus scheme being one of them some £43m in a counter claim from the Contractor Bam Nuttal. Their Jeddah Airport project ended up losing them money despite the big budgets and they also got a blacklisting letter issued in the ME which they are trying to get rescinded. The things that go in in companies that the markets know nothing about is staggering. It's all down to poor management and leadership and not the employees.

[johncraven] 01/8/2012 11:40

unexpected

[aleks_atanasov] 01/8/2012 11:11

wow even Atkins issued a profit warning... things must be pretty bad out there!

[philo124] 25/7/2012 10:44

Anybody think this a good buy at this level? I am not sure.

[deadly] 04/7/2012 14:21

Another good company that's overlooked. Looking good for a re-rating. On 5% EPS growth, P/E only 9 and 4.7% forward yield.

And XD for 20.75p in 3 weeks.

[whoppy] 28/2/2012 17:07

Atkins has won an £80m a year Highways Agency contract for the next 5 years (so that's £400m) in partnership with Skanska for road and bridge management in the South West region. The annual fee will be shared.

[whoppy] 10/2/2012 09:34

Peel Hunt says 'hold' WS Atkins on growth outlook

Christopher Bamberry, analyst at Peel Hunt, has stuck with his 'hold' recommendation on Epsom-headquartered engineering firm WS Atkins (ATK.L) on news that the group's results are in line with expectations.

According to the group, the UK business performed well in the period 1 October to 9 February, aside from the delay to the rail signalling contract, which Bamberry said would hit margins.

In the US, Bamberry said that 'despite a slow start to the seasonally weaker, the outlook for the full year is in line and management continues to expect margin improvement in the full year'.

Bamberry concluded by stating that he expects 2012 to see a return to organic growth for the company, albeit slow growth as only 20-25% of the firm is exposed to high-growth sectors.

Shares in WS Atkins closed at 732.50p on Thursday, up 9.00p.

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Incidently Atkins, being on the look out for acquisitions, has allegedly made an offer of 150p for MCHL but they have not heard back. Another company has also made a 100p offer and has agreed to keep on all the employees, which MCHL may feel is a better deal. Please don't take my word for it or base any investment decisions on my hear say as deals don't always go through, but I know MCHL would be a good strategic move for anyone in the sector looking to expand.

[wiisdomseeker] 11/1/2012 09:29

WS Atkins, Centamin Egypt
By Sharecast, 11 January 2012

[barlick] 05/12/2011 18:06

Was thinling of investing in Atkins but this thread is dead so not going to get any advice/guidance here.

Yeah I know DYOR

[whoppy] 04/10/2011 10:30

Presentation focuses on the ME. Some fanciful forecasts on project spending by Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, Quatar, Bahrain etc etc . They reckon 100's billions are available for building new cities and major transport links. Sure Atkins might make a bit of money out of it..but in this economic climate where's the money going to come from to pay for it all? Don't they know there's a world recession on at the moment.

In the case of new cities, there are not enough people with cash to buy what they want to build. You can't have empty buildings and transport if no one lives in these new places..just look at China they spent billions building new cities but people can't afford to live in them and they are now ghost cities. That's a country with a population of over 1 billion and a booming economy.

Sure populations are growing but thats a bad thing not a good thing as there are limits to number of jobs, resources and money to support it all.

I don't belive there is all this spending available..it makes no sense..just some designer getting carried away with computer concept visualisations..Nothing real imo.

[m.t.glass] 03/10/2011 08:32

8.30am analyst presentation now under way (copy viewable on company website)

[whoppy] 27/9/2011 09:26

Ah..some buying by the CEO 10,000 shares. That's better.

[johncraven] 01/9/2011 10:59

Hyden,

Thanks for the infomation.

[hyden] 26/8/2011 14:36

John,

The shares went ex-dividend on 24th August so if you bought yesterday then you will not be entitled to the dividend. And the final dividend is 19.5p per share - not sure where your figure has come from.

On the bright side, the shares fell more than the dividend across Wed / Thurs so you haven't really missed out.

[johncraven] 26/8/2011 14:04

When it the dividend due to shareholders? I have bourght 10,000 shares yesterday and today and wondered if I will be intitled to the dividend of 29p? divided into 18.75p per share? Thanks

[whoppy] 08/8/2011 13:00

This one's going down the pan..800-600p. Heard they are moving managers and head office to Euston Tower, London. All the idea of the new CEO. Not sure what that means for their Epsom office. A nice asset in land there to be sold, if so. The North American business is likely to suffer with the US finally running out of money, so could end up being a mill stone. The track record for the new incumbant looks a bit doge pot when you see what happened to the swiss engineering company he last headed. The share price collapsed and they had to do a fundraising. He was asked to disappear. Even involved one of the managers being lynched and beaten to death by some disgruntled workers in India. Now at Atkins so be careful. He's brought in an american guy to be in charge of mergers and aquisitions, apparently.

[nellie1973] 11/6/2011 04:13

Broker upgrade target 880p

[whoppy] 26/11/2010 10:09

What does anyone think of the half year results? Revenue is down 5%, profit down 11% and they seem to have left out the cost of the PBSJ aquisition. The cash balance should be £279M minus the cost of the aquisition which cost £178M. Do they not take into account borrowings/debt.

[galles] 14/10/2010 12:15

Whoppy, you seem to have quite a good insight into the company's operation, especially with the Bangalore office! True with the transfer of work to Bangalore, but what I gather is that, with the aim of being more competitive in tenders, only a minority part of a scheme (provided programme is not high on the agenda) gets passed onto the Bangalore office, hence lowering the cost and thus keeping the aspired margin with a lower bid figure. This is certainly a risk, but one if managed successfully, could bring a useful competitive edge over other rivals. I believe however, other companies such as Motts have tried and pulled out of the outsourcing method.

The acquisition was not entirely paid for by borrowed money. Considering the company is cash rich, their decision to borrow to fund part of the deal is more strategic than anything.

I agree with you about the CSR might potentially have an impact on the sector, but I can see better companies to short than this one to be honest. MCHL has quite a lot of debt to handle along with the CSR. Or even construction companies. I somehow have a feeling however that it's been priced in already, so I won't be surprised to see the shares rising steadily afterwards in the sector