Ricardo PLC on Wednesday said it swung to a half-year loss, despite rising revenue and order intake, as cost of sales and administrative expenses increased.
The West Sussex, England-based environmental and engineering consulting firm said pretax loss in the six months that ended December 31 was £12.5 million, swinging from a profit of £4.6 million a year earlier.
This was despite revenue increasing 17% to £212.7 million from £182.0 million, while its order intake surged 42% to £292.8 million from £206.1 million.
This was because cost of sales was up 18% to £152.6 million from £128.5 million, while administrative expenses rose 48% to £70.3 million from £47.4 million.
Despite falling profit, Ricardo proposed an increased interim dividend of 3.35 pence, up 15% from 2.90p a year earlier.
Shares in Ricardo were down 0.9% to 564.00p each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
Looking ahead, Ricardo said it was on track to deliver its financial 2023 expectations.
‘Our very strong order intake demonstrates the meaningful progress we are making against our sharpened strategy. The good revenue and profit growth is centred on our environmental and energy-transition services and our established US Department of Defense programme, along with our continued focus on driving operational excellence,’ said Chief Executive Officer Graham Ritchie.
‘There is still some economic uncertainty, with ongoing market dynamics impacting the performance of our A&I business, and particularly within our established portfolio. As a result we have taken decisive action to accelerate our restructuring programme in A&I to ensure that we are well positioned to improve ongoing cyclical resilience and deliver long-term sustainable growth.
‘We are confident that the actions we are taking in delivering our short-term performance are aligned with our global long-term growth drivers, supporting Ricardo’s ambition - to become a world-leading strategic and engineering consultancy in environmental and energy-transition solutions.’
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