Funding
The conversion of profit into cash continued at a high level and our balance sheet remains strong. Net borrowings at the year end were £32.6 million. The Group's overall debt position benefited from the disposal of property in Ireland and the UK with resulting net proceeds of £4.1 million. The profit from those disposals was offset entirely by dilapidations liabilities in respect of certain leasehold properties and a significant onerous lease provision.

Since the year end the Group has completed the acquisition of Kraan in the Netherlands. This, together with the acquisitions made in 2007, means that we have maximum cash commitments in respect of deferred consideration and outstanding loan notes related to acquisitions of £9.1 million in 2008, £9.6 million in 2009 and £3.5 million in 2010. Shares to the value of £0.2 million will be issued in 2008 to the vendors of acquired businesses.

We have recently increased our committed bank facilities from £70 million to £100 million and extended them until 2013. Our cash generation, in conjunction with these facilities and an ability to use equity in transactions, means that we are well positioned to continue our acquisition strategy. We have a number of encouraging prospects in the pipeline; these in conjunction with those made recently will assist in the maintenance of good levels of growth.

Review of Business Prospects
The excellent growth we have achieved in recent years has been recognised by the recent KPMG survey of the 500 fastest growing European companies.(1) At the same time we have recently been identified as one of the top 20 best employers in Britain.(2) This suggests we have dealt well with the challenge of recruiting and retaining the high quality staff we need to sustain our growth. As a result of our acquisition strategy we have also developed good skills in bringing together teams of high quality professionals from a range of disciplines and helping them work together. In the coming years we are likely to deploy these skills on an increasingly international basis.

The last year has seen a dramatic increase in the profile given to the potentially severe effect of climate change and the actions necessary to contain and eventually reverse the global warming process. Balancing the way energy is secured from various sources, managing its use to limit further environmental damage whilst planning further economic growth and urban development has become a fundamental challenge of this century. It is one which RPS is extremely well positioned to advise upon and will enable us to build further momentum and provides opportunities for all our businesses. The Board believes these opportunities will more than outweigh any potential adverse consequences of possible economic turbulence.

Our continued investment in the energy sector has enabled us to internationalise our activities in a significant but measured way. Consequently, we now have strong businesses in the USA, Canada and Australia as well as substantial contracts relating to oil and gas exploration and production in many parts of the developing world, including India, Russia and China.

We have successfully begun the process of expanding our activities in Australia into planning and development and environmental management. Whilst this process is in the early stages we are confident it can be extended substantially. Australia is also a good base from which to develop our activities in Asia, where we already have offices in Malaysia and Singapore.

In a similar fashion, there are opportunities to develop the full range of our activities in both the USA and Canada. As in Europe and Australia, the planning and development and environmental management sectors in North America are highly fragmented and will provide a good long term basis for growth.

On 23 January we announced that RPS had a strong end to trading in 2007; this momentum has carried into the start of 2008.The opportunities available to us are significant and wide ranging. We have a diverse, robust and resilient business and remain confident about continuing the growth of RPS.