AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. ATRL-T reported record revenues and backlog in its latest quarter as its nuclear segment continues to fuel growth at the engineering firm.
Third-quarter revenue surged 25 per cent year-over-year in its engineering services segment, which covers sectors ranging from transport to water systems, and 62 per cent in its nuclear division.
The company’s order book jumped 23 per cent from a year earlier to a record high of $21-billion, with nuclear accounting for a majority of the growth.
“We’re in supercycle,” said CEO Ian Edwards of the sector.
Countries across the globe are looking to scale up their nuclear generation, with AtkinsRéalis now employing more than 6,000 workers in its nuclear team to meet the demand, he said. “It’s very, very real.”
Recent project delays in the United States failed to dampen Edwards’ optimism, who raised the company’s forecast for 2025 nuclear revenue to between $2.2-billion and $2.3-billion, from $2-billion to $2.1-billion – itself an increase from a previously predicted $1.65-billion.
“There’s clearly been some kind of disruption to the U.S. market,” Edwards said, pointing to stalled project starts. “It’s the volatility connected to tariffs, the (government) shutdown and the ’big beautiful bill’” – a sprawling piece of legislation signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in July.
“But what we’re seeing now is that’s actually being overcome. And we’re seeing definitely in Q4 a return to wins, a return to orders coming through.”
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On Thursday, the Montreal-based company formerly known as SNC-Lavalin said profits attributable to shareholders rose 41 per cent to $146.7-million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $103.7-million in the same period a year earlier.
Revenues increased 15 per cent to $2.81-billion from $2.45-billion a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, AtkinsRéalis said profits from professional services and project management amounted to $1.06 per diluted share, up from an adjusted profit of 63 cents per share in the same quarter last year and beating analysts’ expectations of 86 cents per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
In its outlook, AtkinsRéalis lowered its expectations for organic revenue growth in its engineering services group to the low-single digit percentage range compared with earlier expectations of a mid-single digit percentage gain. The dip was balanced out by the expected boost in nuclear revenue.