By Joanne Bladd www.arabianbusiness.com
British engineering firm Hyder Consulting said on Tuesday that it was on track to beat profit forecasts in its full-year results, despite still being owed GBP9.4m ($14.9m) by Dubai clients.
The consultancy, which earns 70 percent of its revenue outside the UK, said it has scaled back its work in Dubai, but retained a strong order book in the broader Gulf region.
In an interim statement, the firm said it was “working hard to collect outstanding receivables in Dubai” and that its debt and work in progress now amounts to £9.4m across a number of clients.
A consortium of British firms last year claimed to be owed some $600m in outstanding payments from state-backed firms in Dubai.
The company, which advised on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa project, said it was poised to report full year revenue and operating profit “slightly ahead” of market expectations, after absorbing operating costs of around GBP3m.
Operating profits for the Middle East region were down on the previous period, the company said, a result of the decline in work in Dubai following the real estate crash.
In the Asia Pacific region, operating profits were substantially ahead of the previous period, bolstered by strong sales in the transport and property sectors, Hyder said.
However, results from Europe were well below the prior year, partly due to redundancy costs, the company said.
