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Expansion continues with acquisition of Magnet Group in Belgium as PM Group publishes its annual results for the year ended December 31st 2017.

Financial Performance

The Group reported revenue of €290m and operating profit of €9.1m for the year. Overall revenue was down by 14% due to the reduction in ‘pass through’ revenue and costs incurred on behalf of clients by the Group. Fee revenue, which reflects underlying trading performance, was down 2.5% in the period. This was primarily due to the effects of Brexit in the UK market where a number of investment decisions have been postponed.

Operating profit was down by 14% mainly due to the impact of Brexit and currency exchange effects of a strong euro. Net assets increased by 10% to €51.8 million, underpinning the Group’s capacity to drive development and growth through continued investment.

Operational performance

Throughout the year, PM Group worked on major projects in over 30 countries. The Pharma sector was particularly busy with significant capital investment by a number of core clients such as Alexion, MSD and Janssen in Ireland, for GSK and MSD in the UK, for Astra Zeneca and Merck in China, for GSK in Singapore and for Novartis and Merck in Switzerland. The Group is experiencing further growth in the Pharma sector this year. The company is also completing many projects for Food, Data Centre and MedTech clients.

PM Group now has more than 2,400 people worldwide and is committed to hiring another 400 people by 2020, more than half of whom will be graduates.

New acquisitions

PM Group also announced the acquisition of Magnet Group in Belgium, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm based near Antwerp. The Group now has 60 people in the Benelux region with plans to double this number by 2020. This acquisition will enable PM Group to diversify and grow in the region, delivering more projects locally for its Pharma and Data Centre clients, while also providing a range of services to the Food, Advanced Manufacturing and Energy sectors. The acquisition follows the acquisition of PM PROjEN in the UK in January 2018.

Magnet Group specialises in Petrochemicals, Manufacturing and Energy, with a client list that includes Pfizer, Alcon, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and various petrochemical companies in the Port of Antwerp.

Outlook

Trading in 2018 has been very strong for PM Group with several large projects in various stages of delivery and a healthy backlog.

The Group anticipates as this stage that underlying revenue will rise by more than 10% this year with a corresponding increase in operating profits.

Commenting, Dave Murphy, CEO, PM Group said: “Despite a number of challenging external factors, 2017 was another strong year for PM Group. We delivered a range of complex projects for multi-national clients around the world. Unsurprisingly, some UK clients are hesitant about committing capital to projects with ongoing uncertainty regarding Brexit.”

He continued: “We have seen very strong growth in 2018 and this has been boosted with the acquisition of PM PROjEN in the UK in January and more recently Magnet Group in Belgium boosting our personnel numbers to 2,400. We are continuing to seek acquisition opportunities to increase our presence in key markets.”

Dan Flinter, Chairman, PM Group said: “Last year, PM Group achieved solid results across revenue, operating profit and net assets with minimal year-end debt and strong cash balances, providing significant support to the Group’s ongoing development plans. The performance to date in 2018 has been really positive and a great tribute to the Group’s management and staff.

About PM Group in Belgium:

PM Group delivered its first project in Belgium in 2004 and has had a local operation there since 2009, delivering over €1.5bn in projects for clients including GSK, Sanofi, Janssen, Pfizer, Alcon and confidential data centre clients.