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AMEC PLC PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE

13 December 2007


London, United Kingdom, (13 December, 2007) - AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, today issued a trading update.

  • Energy, power and process end-markets continue to be strong
  • Strong performance across all divisions
  • 2007 pre-tax profit* towards the upper end of market expectations**
  • Aggregate post-tax gain on divestments in 2007 not less than £220 million
  • Positive progress on legacy issues continuing; further net exceptional provision release of at least £5 million expected in second half 2007
  • Expected net cash as at 31 December 2007 c.£650 million
  • Operational Excellence launched; new divisional margin targets announced; group targets continue to be six per cent in 2008 and eight per cent in 2010

* Profit for continuing operations before intangible amortisation and pre-tax exceptional profits.
** Range between £111-122 million.

Chief Executive Samir Brikho said:

"AMEC continues to make strong progress, with trading performance being ahead of expectations both as a result of end market strength and our own strategic initiatives.

"Each of our divisions is expected to make progress next year, and I am confident that AMEC will deliver the six per cent margin targeted in 2008.

"In the longer term, our end markets are expected to remain buoyant for the foreseeable future, particularly in natural resources. Our Operational Excellence programme will also be a major contributor to AMEC delivering its margin target of eight per cent by 2010."

AMEC expects to announce preliminary results for the year ending 31 December 2007, on Wednesday 12 March 2008.

Forward looking statements
Any forward looking statements made in this document represent management's best judgement as to what may occur in the future. However, the group's actual results for the current and future fiscal periods and corporate developments will depend on a number of economic, competitive and other factors, some of which will be outside the control of the group. Such factors could cause the group's actual results for future periods to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statements made in this document.

Conference call and presentation
A telephone conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 8.30am today.

A presentation on Operational Excellence will be held at 4.00pm today for the financial community. A live webcast of the event and presentation slides will be available on www.amec.com.