(Montreal) The Montreal engineering firm Atkinsrealis has slightly revised its declining forecasts in the engineering sector due to a drop in activity in the United States.
New orders represented only 59 % of revenues in the second quarter in the United States and Latin America region, according to the second quarter results unveiled on Thursday.
The president and chief executive officer of the Montreal company, Ian Edwards, acknowledged that the activities were running down to the south of the border. “We saw deadlines before infrastructure projects are converted into income,” he said at a conference with analysts.
Photo Hugo-Sébastien Aubert, the press archives
The president and chief executive officer of Atkinsrealis, Ian Edwards
Projects have been delayed in the American states while the public administration was waiting to measure the consequences of the change of guard at the White House.
Edwards believes that the prospects remain good in the United States. He also indicated that the results were compared to a strong period for the mining sector in the United States.
Analyst Ian Gillies, Stifel, shares this optimist. “We would be buying in the event of a drop in action, because we believe that the favorable context is still in place and the balance sheet puts a good position to finance an acquisition. »»
The company formerly known under the name of SNC-Lavalin has slightly revised downwards its income growth forecasts in the engineering services segment due to lower internationally demand. However, she slightly improved her forecasts for nuclear energy.
The Atkinsrealis command book is getting better for the whole business.
The company unveiled a 20.9 billion notebook, compared to 15.9 billion at the same period last year.
Edwards also reiterated that the company was carrying out steps in the United States to enter the nuclear market. “We are looking at what to do through the certification process, which should not be too difficult since it is really similar to that of Canada. »»
The manager spoke of the end of the decade as a moment when the company would be able to obtain the necessary permits.
The context is favorable to industry in the south of the border, while the Trump administration has given itself the objective of quadruple nuclear energy production in the United States by 2050. The government wants to start the beginning of construction of 10 major reactors by 2030 and accelerate approval processes.
American industry is concentrated while Westinghouse is the only active American company capable of building large reactors in the United States.
Atkinsrelis recorded a net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.3 billion in the second quarter, compared to 82.2 million at the same period last year.
This strong gap is due to a gain of 2.2 billion drawn from the sale of its participation in the 407 motorway in the large region of Toronto.
Total income, for their part, is up 15 % to 2.7 billion. The profit adjusted per share is $ 0.78.
Before the publication of the results, analysts anticipated 2.6 billion income and share per share of $ 0.68, according to the financial data firm Refinitiv.
Atkinsrealis’ action lost $ 0.05, or 0.05 %, at $ 96.27 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the afternoon.
