Revenues drop but Grontmij finds comfort in orders

The Dutch company, which has its UK headquarters in Leeds, said it had achieved cost reductions and an improved order book during difficult market conditions. Grontmij has been involved in a number of high profile schemes in Yorkshire, including work on St George's Square in Huddersfield, Leeds University's master plan and the landscape design of Halifax Piece Hall.

In the first half of 2010, Grontmij saw its revenue fall by 9.6 per cent to 376m euros (309m) when compared to the same period last year. Half year profit after tax was 4.1m euros (3.37m) compared to 15.4m euros in the first half of 2009.

Sylvo Thijsen, the chief executive of Grontmij, said: "The second quarter of 2010 was consistent with the first quarter, with the underlying performance of the business beginning to stabilise and the forward order book starting to improve."

In June, it was announced that Grontmij was buying French engineer Ginger in a deal worth 120m euros.

Grontmij said the deal would create the fourth largest European engineering consultancy, with combined revenues of 1.1bn euros.

Mr Thijsen said the acquisition of Ginger remained on course. The public offer for the remainder of the Ginger shares was launched on July 23.

However, Mr Thijsen said trading in the UK had remained slow, although the order book had started to strengthen.

Mr Thijsen highlighted the importance of a recently awarded contract with Scottish Water.

He added: "Overall, our markets remain uncertain, especially in building related services, and so we will continue to take necessary action on our cost base, and manage our working capital and cash tightly.

"We will continue to vigorously pursue organic growth opportunities through the cross border business lines, and we will build further on these through the integration of the Ginger acquisition.

"With the stabilisation of our business in the Nordic region, the cost reductions and the expected pick up in the regulated water business in the UK we expect a stronger second half in 2010 for the organic business, to be further supplemented by the consolidation of Ginger."