Shares in engineering and environmental consultancy Waterman Group fell after it said annual pre-tax profit and revenue deteriorated in tough market conditions.

The group, which offers support services to the property, infrastructure, energy and environmental markets, said pre-tax profit fell to £0.59m for the year ended June 30th 2012 compared to £0.61m the previous year.

The group, which generates 85% of its revenues in the UK and Australia, said overall sales fell to £68.8m during the period from £74.1m previously.

"Both these markets (UK and Australia) are mature and whilst they remain competitive we continue to win our share of new opportunities from our established clients," the group explained in a company statement.

"The markets in our other overseas locations in Russia, the Middle East and Europe are less predictable and we have re-focused our efforts on certain key clients to provide more profitable workload."

Chief Executive Nick Taylor added: "These results have been achieved against a backdrop of challenging market conditions. The company has been strengthened following restructuring to parts of our business and this will provide greater resilience and competiveness."

Waterman, which has offices in the UK, Europe, CIS, Middle East, Asia Pacific and China, is proposing to pay a final dividend of 0.2p per share, up from 0.1p a year earlier.

The group noted that workload in China over the year has been very light due to government measures to reduce inflation and prevent overheating of the economy.

Otherwise Waterman said whilst in the short-term market conditions will continue to be competitive, looking further ahead it believes that there are grounds for guarded optimism based on its success in rebuilding a pipeline of future project assignments.


CJ

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