The market “remains positive and the pipeline of opportunities continues to be strong as global markets continue to recover and a return to product development is evident”, Ricardo said in a trading update for the fiscal year to the end of June 2011.
“Orders continue to flow from a wide range of countries and across a broad sector base, driven by emissions legislation, CO2 reduction and new product requirements. In particular, we are seeing orders returning in the automotive sector with a good range of traditional clients from across the globe. The orderbook remains at over GBP100m.”
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Ricardo added that revenue growth continued through the final quarter of the financial year and that, together with recent contract conclusions, had led to “a profit performance well ahead of market expectations for the financial year”.
It said its UK and German technical consulting businesses were being highly used and recruiting staff.
Relationships with key clients in the UK, mainland Europe and Asia continued to develop and were “delivering multi-year programmes”.
“We are seeing the size of many of these orders returning to pre-recessionary levels. The US division has found the market environment slower to recover this year and as a result, clients in this region are tending to place smaller sized orders. Despite this, the US business continues to deliver growth,” Ricardo added.
After a lull in the third quarter, the strategic consulting business “returned to high levels of activity with a good range of order wins and a solid pipeline”.
CEO Dave Shemmans noted: “We are very pleased that the orderbook and pipeline strength reported at the half year has delivered an expected profit performance well ahead of market expectations for the financial year ending 30th June 2011.
“The order book is solid, the pipeline strong and improved cash terms on order wins, together with tight management of the business, has delivered a positive cash balance and thus a continued strong balance sheet. We remain confident of further progress in the coming year.”
