The forecast of a strong year ahead follows a restructure of the main engineering services division and recovery from legacy contracts.

Revenue grew in 2021 by just over a quarter to £562m generating a modest pre-tax profit of £3.9m, after its £27m loss in the previous year.

Most of the growth came from engineering services where revenue jumped by over £100m to £400m in the year.

But this division also continued to be dragged down by its last loss-making contract.

CEO Gautier Jacob said that profit had been impacted by a writedown at Engineering Services on a last problem residential project in London amounting to £5.4m in the year, which is now fully agreed.

In total, the London and South arm of the division had to battle through three loss-making residential projects over the last year or more.

The problems with residential projects prompted a review of  business strategy at the division.

Jacob said: “The business has drastically reduced its exposure to the residential sector and focused on its strategic sectors where it is able to add value through its engineering capabilities.

“The underlying engineering services business is now performing well and is benefitting from the restructure completed in 2021.”

Jacob added that Imtech, which employs nearly 3,000 staff, was now well placed to build on the business foundations laid this year.

“We expect to improve this further in 2022 with EBITDA forecast to reach £21.1m,” he added.

Imtech closed the year out with an order book of £568m, up 6% on the start after Engineering Services, Energy Services, Suir and Inviron saw good orders growth.

The provision of services to parent company EDF last year represented less than 10% of total turnover.

This included FM services across the EDF Corporate portfolio, delivering M&E projects within EDF Generation while being involved in the construction of Hinkley Point.

Jacob added: “Our financial performance and capacity, complementary workstreams, broad position across our strategic sectors and the backing and formidable expertise of EDF Group mean we are ready to deliver our growth strategy in the coming years.”