AUKETT SWANKE GROUP PLC

Business and Financial Review • Dec 2, 2013

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RNS Number : 3606U

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group PLC

02 December 2013

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group Plc

Trading Update

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group Plc, the international group of architects and interior designers, is pleased to provide an update in respect of the group's current trading.

In previous trading updates we reported that our UK operation was achieving higher revenues and growth in staff numbers, and that this would have a positive effect on the group's results for our 2012/13 financial year. We will publish those results in mid-January 2014 and, as previously noted, expect those results to be in line with current market expectations for that year.

The widely reported improvement in the UK services sector is clearly evident in our own revenue performance with a continuation of development instructions in London, a luxury hotel in Qatar, and new enquiries being received on a regular basis.

We have also seen the re-emergence of office developers proceeding before securing pre-lets in the UK regional market. We currently have instructions in a number of regional cities including Birmingham, Cambridge and Reading which, along with schemes at planning in Bristol and Norwich, have in excess of 1.1m square feet of space and an approximate construction value of £150m.

As a result our UK operation has continued to see an upward shift in our top-line and staff numbers. In the short term this growth will be tempered at the bottom line by the need to bring temporary recessionary cost reduction programmes to an end, including the return to full staff costs following four years of remuneration waivers.

Our Russian operation has suffered a series of revenue gaps which have continued into the first quarter of our 2013/14 financial year. However, recent successes in securing new work in both the residential, and historically strong, hotel sectors should help towards achieving a more balanced future profile.

Our Middle East operation should breakeven this year with retail and hotel projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Elsewhere our jointly owned European ventures have all seen a good start to the year with continuity of instructions being a key feature.

Overall therefore, we are pleased to report that we expect the full year group pre-tax profits for our 2013/14 financial year will exceed those for our 2012/13 financial year.

Enquiries

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson  -  020 7843 3000

Nicholas Thompson, Chief Executive Officer

Duncan Harper, Group Finance Director

finnCap - 020 7220 0500

Corporate Finance, Matt Goode

Corporate Broking, Simon Starr / Stephen Norcross

Hermes Financial PR

Chris Steele - 07979 604687

Trevor Philips - 07880 153628

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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