The company, which now employs more than 15,500 people globally, brought in gross revenue of DKK7bn (£848m) in the first half year of 2019.
Ramboll UK grew 8% compared to the same period in 2018. UK managing director Mathew Riley said that this was an excellent achievement given the current market conditions. "We have welcomed great new talent to our business in the first half of this year and continue to invest in innovative approaches which look to transform how our industry works and the value we create for clients," he said.
Global organic growth was 3.9% compared to 7.1% in the first half of 2018. Operating profit before amortisation (EBITA) was DKK308.5m compared to DKK275.2m in the first half of 2018. At 4.4%, the EBITA margin was below the 4.8% of the same period last year. However, this had been expected as it reflects the inclusion of newly acquired US engineering and design consultancy OBG, which has been characterised by a high degree of low-margin revenue through subcontractors on specific large projects. On a like-for-like basis, the underlying margin was 0.4%-point higher than same period last year, said the company. The number of employees grew by 9% during the first half of 2019, mainly due to the acquisition of OBG. The transaction added 900 employees to Ramboll, which established a new principal business unit for the Americas with 2,000 specialists working in water, energy, environment and health.
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“Ramboll continues its strong growth with good performances in the UK and in the Nordics and in our global Water, Transport and Buildings markets,” said group CEO Jens-Peter Saul. “I am also pleased that the integration of OBG is progressing according to plan and that our combined skills have led to more projects than expected for our first half-year together. As expected, the inclusion of OBG has a temporary dilution effect on our margin. However, our general performance is good and on a like-for-like basis our operating margin is higher than last year.”
He added: “Looking ahead, we will continue to integrate OBG and improve the operating margin of the newly acquired operations. Further, we will continue our investments in digitalisation and innovation, including our global incubator programme, to support our ambition to become a digital leader in our industry. We expect to continue the good growth curve and to finish 2019 with a higher operating profit compared to 2018.”
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