Aukett still looks abroad
Article Date: Jan 16 2009Commercial architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson will seek more non-UK work after flat annual pre-tax profits of £2.4 million.
Chief executive officer Nicholas Thompson says the AIM-quoted company, which increased turnover 14 per cent to £22.6 million in the year to September, largely thanks to winning £5 million revenues from scratch in Abu Dhabi, must now ‘do a repeat performance and find more non-UK business’. He says London-based Aukett had already planned to expand in Moscow and Abu Dhabi when the UK credit crunch caused the slowing down and disappearance of domestic opportunities.
That meant ‘we had spare capacity in London and could start projects over there very quickly, hitting the ground running’. Thompson, who says ‘we design very efficient, good-looking commercial buildings, pitched at the top end of the market’, explains that Aukett now has seven commissions from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign state developer.
In Moscow, where the company has years of experience and ‘we are seen as Russian’, Aukett’s team has newly signed a four million sq ft office complex commission. Pointing out that the company has no gearing and net cash of £400,000, Thompson says Aukett aims at least to maintain its dividend, which directors recommend increasing five per cent to 0.21p a share for last year.
He does not quarrel with analysts’ forecasts of lower profits this year, to reflect the company’s changed business mix, but sounds enthusiastic about longer-term prospects in its newer markets. Aukett shares, which fell from 17.87p two years ago to 2.37p in 2006, now trade at 6.12p, valuing the company at £8.9 million.
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