Interim Management Statement

Ricardo PLC
09 November 2007


9th November 2007

                                  Ricardo plc

                          Interim Management Statement


Ricardo, the leading UK independent automotive consultancy, employing over 1700
people worldwide is providing its first Interim Management Statement.

Ricardo's strategy is to exploit opportunities provided by the changing
automotive landscape and the need to maximise the world's energy resources
whilst minimising global CO2 emissions. The Company is targeting growth in a
number of new geographic regions and market sectors, and is investing in R&D to
develop new technologies for an expanding customer base.

The implementation of the Group strategy is progressing well and Group
performance is in line with management expectations.

Order intake across the business continues to perform well, up 22% at the end of
the first quarter compared to prior year, with growth driven by further orders
from the Far East. We are also benefiting from a strong orderbook, which has
grown 7% since the year end to £98m at the end of September. The pipeline of
opportunities continues to be strong, both in terms of size and quality. Revenue
has increased 11% in the first quarter with an increased profit compared to the
same period last year.

Within Technical Consulting, the UK business is performing well as a result of
increased business from Europe and Asia. Operations in Shanghai are gathering
momentum as we continue to increase the number of local engineers as the office
delivers its own work packages. The Japanese market remains buoyant and
strengthening relationships with key clients continue to bear fruit. We have
also opened a small office in Delhi, to build further on recent order wins.

Strategic Consulting continues to broaden its client and activity reach, while
retaining its main focus on the automotive sector, we have now begun working
with customers outside this sector on a selected basis. A new office will be
opened this year in Munich, to work more closely with key clients in the German
market and attract further key talent into the business.

In order to provide world-class services, the recruitment of key staff and the
creation of a unified team and culture is an important part of the Ricardo
strategy. In the period we have enhanced our management team with the
appointment of a new HR Director, a Procurement Director and two highly
respected Non Executives for Germany and the US management boards who bring with
them excellent market experience and contacts.

Under new leadership both the US and German divisions are refreshing their
talent pool and making organisational changes to build their business
development functions and operational delivery skills. The US is progressing to
plan and utilisation is increasing following a rightsizing activity. While we
are seeing positive market conditions in Germany, finding the right engineering
resource to support the level of locally available business has proved
challenging in the period, which is constraining local growth plans.

Net debt will follow a similar trend to last year, increasing at the end of the
first half before returning to lower levels by the year end.

Overall, the Group continues to deliver growth in line with management strategy
and the Board is confident of further growth in this financial year.

The interim results for the six month period to 31 December 2007 will be
announced on 27 February 2008.


Further enquiries:

Ricardo plc
Dave Shemmans, Chief Executive                           01273 455611
Paula Bell, Group Finance Director                       01273 455611
Website: www.ricardo.com

Gavin Anderson & Company                                 020 7554 1400
Fergus Wylie
Michael Turner




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