01 March 2023

Interim results 2022/23 - Year ending 31 December 2022

HIGHLIGHTS


A good set of results whilst also transforming our business. 

  • A good set of underlying results for the Group in line with the Board’s expectation
  • Record high order book in excess of £410m
  • Continued strong growth across our Environmental and Energy-Transition portfolio, in line with strategic focus
  • Defense and Performance Products providing long-term visibility and financial resilience in our Established Mobility portfolio
  • Improvement in underlying financial metrics overall
  • Market dynamics impacting the overall A&I business
  • Meaningful strategic progress accelerating our portfolio transformation
  • Increased interim dividend of 3.35p declared
  • On track to deliver our full year expectations
  Reference     HY 2022/23 HY 2021/22 Growth/(decline)%
Continuing operations            
Order intake     £m 292.8 206.1 42.1
Order book     £m 414.4 311.0 33.2
Revenue     £m 212.7 182.0 16.9
             
Underlying (1)          
- Operating profit     £m 12.5 9.8 27.6
- Operating profit margin     % 5.9 5.4 0.5pp
- Profit before tax     £m 9.9 8.0 23.8
             
Reported            
- Operating (loss)/profit     £m (9.9) 6.4 (254.7)
- Operating (loss)/profit margin     % (4.7) 3.5 (8.2pp)
- (Loss)/profit before tax     £m (12.5) 4.6 (371.7)
             
Total            
Underlying cash conversion (1) & (3)   % 97.1 161.9 (64.8pp)
Cash conversion (3)   % 59.7 167.6 (107.9pp)
Basic underlying earnings per share (1) & (2)   p 12.2 10.6 15.1
Basic reported (loss)/earnings per share     p (13.2) 5.6 (335.7)
             
Closing            
Net debt (comparative as at 30 June 2022) (4)   £m 31.4 35.4 (11.3)
Headcount (5)   no. 2,873 2,869 0.1
             
Dividend proposed per share     p 3.35 2.91 15.1

Commenting on the results, Graham Ritchie, Chief Executive Officer, said: 

“We have made good progress in the first half of the year delivering in line with the Board’s expectations whilst also accelerating our portfolio transformation.  As a result, our Group expectations for the full year remain unchanged. 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 (DoD) programme, along with our continued focus on driving operational excellence.
 
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 have also continued our progress in transitioning our portfolio to high growth, high margin, low capital solutions, demonstrated by our recent acquisition.

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.
 
At our Capital Markets event in 2022, we set out Ricardo’s sharpened strategy, and we are looking forward to hosting a follow-up event in May 2023 to provide further details on the progress we have made one year on.”


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