Clean Ricardo sparkles

Demand for the engineering consultant's expertise in engines, transmissions and electrical vehicle innovation remains strong as car manufacturers seek to improve their products' carbon footprints without paying through the nose or compromising on drive quality. 'Lightweighting' technology - replacing steel with plastics, for example - remains particularly popular, while US customers go crazy for cutting-edge driverless vehicles. The upshot was record order intake and 12 per cent growth in underlying operating profit in the group's core technical consulting unit.

Management hopes tightening emissions rules will spur similar success for Ricardo's recently launched global motorcycle business. Chief executive Dave Shemmans says bikes are the main form of transport in Asia and are becoming increasingly popular in busy western cities. The engineer also branched into the US defence market. Management reckons its development of technology to prevent vehicles such as Hummers from rolling over will be a hit with the US Department of Defense.

Broker Investec Securities expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £36.2m in the year to June 2016, giving adjusted EPS of 48.2p (up from 42.4p in 2014-15).