Atkins pays to get rid of loss-making business

Peter Brown will be taken on by Moss & Associates, a privately held construction firm headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Moss focuses on construction management at risk, design-build and public-private partnerships in the southeast of the United States.

As part of the agreement Atkins will pay Moss a cash sum of £2.6m. Peter Brown, which currently employs 50 staff, reported an operating loss of £6.5m, on revenue of £24.4m, in the year to 31 March 2013. This result included losses incurred on the completion of certain legacy construction contracts, the final one of which will be completed in the spring of next year and does not form part of the business transferring to Moss.

Atkins expects to report a loss on disposal of approximately £3m in respect of the transaction.

Chief executive officer Prof Dr Uwe Krueger said: "The disposal of our Peter Brown business is another step in the implementation of our strategy, which includes the optimisation of our portfolio of businesses. We believe Moss is a more appropriate company to take this business forward and this will allow our North American management team to focus on growing our core engineering consultancy business in the region."

The transaction is due to complete on 30 August.

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