In its last year under Spanish ownership, Amey saw its profits improve despite a dip in turnover.
Amey chief executive Andy Milner In the year to 31st December 2022, Amey UK Ltd made a pre-tax profit of £86.4m (2021: £82.0m) on revenue of £2.08bn (2021: £2.33bn).
The 2022 profit figure includes more than £100m of exceptional charges – mostly contract loss provisions – compared to £3m in 2021. Operating profit before tax on continuing operations, before exceptional items, was £194.8m (2021: £83.1m).
The dip in revenue was attributed in part to the completion of the Next Generation Estates Contract (NGEC) for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
Amey was acquired by UK private equity outfits One Equity Partners and Buckthorn Partners on 30th December 2022 from Ferrovial of Spain in a transaction valued at £400m.
Former chief executive Andy Milner returned to his old job on 1st January this year.
He said: “The transfer of ownership of the Amey Group brings to an end a prolonged period of uncertainty since 2018 when Grupo Ferrovial announced their intention to dispose of their Services portfolio of which Amey was a significant part. For its owns part, the business has now disposed of the non-core utilities and waste treatment businesses and is able to focus on growth across its core consulting, complex facilities and transport infrastructure businesses., The ability to combine expertise across the whole lifecycle in our target market provides a very strong foundation for Amey to continue to succeed under new ownership.”
In its last year under Spanish ownership, Amey won £108m of consulting work and £834m of transport infrastructure work.
The transport infrastructure division made an operating loss of £85.6m in 2022 (2021: £27.0m profit), including future loss provisions of £108.7m “which reflects the judgement made in the accounts of the group’s immediate holding company following the acquisition of the group”, Milner said.
He put the improved profitability of the business down to “improvement in the contract profitability of our portfolio by exiting or renegotiating poorly performing contracts and the continuing focus on costs”.