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Arup posts strong results as profits and turnover rise

Arup has posted a rise in revenue and pre-tax profit as staff numbers at the firm approach the 13,000 mark.

Overall turnover at the international engineering firm rose 10% to £1.2bn in the year to March 2016, while staff numbers increased by more than 650 to 12,800. Pre-tax profit was up £3m to £22m. As a trust owned business, with no external shareholders, the firm increased the amount of profit-sharing with staff by 53 per cent. 

Arup saw robust performance in all regions. Major transport infrastructure has remained a key global sector for the firm. During the year an average of 12,800 employees worked on more than 16,000 projects in 146 countries. The firm has continued to focus on innovation, cross-disciplinary collaboration and quality, completing stand-out projects such as Lake Mead Intake No.3 in the US, Torre Reforma, Mexico's tallest building, and Arnhem Central Station in the Netherlands. 

Arup chairman Gregory Hodkinson said that the firm’s UK business had enjoyed a positive year despite uncertainty ahead of the EU referendum. Hodkinson said that Arup had “successfully weathered the property market slowdown in China, which remains one of our key strategic regions and also saw modest growth in India, which continues to be a market of great interest. South East Asia needs significant infrastructure development and we’ve seen promising signs in Indonesia and a continuing strong performance in Singapore,” he said.

Referring to the uncertain political situation in the UK and elsewhere, Hodkinson said: “As always, political events will have a major influence on the business environment. To date, uncertainty around the US election, China’s slowdown, Brexit and political turbulence in other parts of the world have not had much negative impact on our firm, but we will continue to watch developments closely.”

More details can be found in Arup’s 2016 Annual Report here.  

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