MONTREAL – Riding a record backlog, AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. CEO Ian Edwards sees more room for big gains as Canada and other Western countries look to shore up crumbling infrastructure and bulk up their militaries amid growing global strife.
“Recent NATO commitments by the Canadian government are likely to yield further opportunities for our defence expertise. And the opportunities that will come from the Building Canada Act are set to have a positive impact on AtkinsRéalis,” Edwards told analysts on a conference call Thursday.
In its budget bill last week, the federal government pledged to spend an additional $81.8 billion on defence over five years. In June, it passed major projects legislation that gives Ottawa sweeping new powers to speed up permitting for what the Liberals call “nation-building projects.”
On the military front, Edwards pointed to recent contracts in the United Kingdom, where the engineering firm has upgraded dockyards and airfields, as a springboard for possible defence work in Canada and Australia.
“New aircraft in Canada, new ships in Canada, new potential submarines in Canada — all of the physical infrastructure will need upgrading to be able to operate and maintain those assets,” he said.
The chief executive pointed to nuclear-powered submarines being developed between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States under a security partnership known as AUKUS.
“We are the engineer of physical infrastructure assets to support that program in the U.K. And having got that experience, we are in a very good place in Australia, where the AUKUS submarine is being deployed,” he said.
Edwards’ comments came on the heels of record revenues and backlog last quarter as the firm’s nuclear segment continues to fuel growth.
Third-quarter revenue in its engineering services segment, which covers sectors ranging from transport to water systems, surged 25 per cent year-over-year to a new high of $1.9 billion. Revenue skyrocketed 62 per cent in its nuclear division.
The company’s order book jumped 23 per cent from a year earlier to an unprecedented $21 billion, with nuclear accounting for a majority of the growth.
“We’re in a supercycle,” Edwards said 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.”
The 43-day government shutdown in the U.S. 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.
“Federal funding to states has slowed, impacting some of our clients at state level. As a result, we’re experiencing some delays in receiving contract awards and commencing projects,” he said.
A broader sense of disruption has also rattled business. “It’s the volatility connected to tariffs, the shutdown and the ‘big beautiful bill’” — a sprawling piece of legislation signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in July that combines sweeping tax cuts with deep spending reductions.
“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,” Edwards said.
On top of major projects in Canada, rusting bridges and crumbling roads south of the border portend big expenditures on public contracts in the coming years.
“They’ve got an aging infrastructure problem in the U.S., with actually a US$3.7-trillion gap in infrastructure investment which ultimately will play through to a deterioration of roads, water, rail infrastructure, which they will have to spend on,” he said.
Edwards also cited the growing need for flood defence amid intensifying hurricanes, “which is not great, but it’s an opportunity for us.”
About 60 per cent of the US$1.2-trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2021 has yet to be awarded, he added.
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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2025.
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