Engineer WS Atkins pension burden passes £430 million

WS Atkins, the engineer behind Oxford Circus’ diagonal crossing, today warned its pension burden in 2014 will be in excess of the £430 million reported last year.

The news comes just two months after Atkins, which is also the world’s 14th-biggest design firm, announced that it had come up with a 12-year repayment plan to plug that gap.

Today’s trading update comes ahead of the group’s full-year results announcement in June, which Atkins said will be in line with expectations after a strong fourth quarter.

There has been an improvement in Atkins’ operating margin in the core UK business after the £18 million sale of its highways-services division to Skanska.

Net cash flow across the group is also on the up at an expected £180 million, against some analyst forecasts of just £140 million.