Trading Statement

Ricardo PLC
04 January 2007




4th January 2007
                                  
                                  Ricardo plc
                               Trading Statement


Today the Board of Ricardo plc is providing a trading update in respect of the
half year ended 31 December 2006. Ricardo will announce its Interim Results on
Monday 5 March 2007.

Group order book at the end of November has grown year on year by 13%, with all
areas of the business contributing with growing order intake, order books and
lists of opportunities. Business from Asia has been particularly strong,
bringing with it an increased level of working capital as previously
highlighted.

The UK business continues to perform well with a solid first half, a growing
order book and an increasing pipeline of prospects, particularly from Asia,
where our market penetration in Japan, China and India is progressing well. We
are actively recruiting to fulfil the project demand for engine, electronics and
transmission related programmes. In addition the test beds remain well utilised.

In Germany the market conditions remain challenging, however we continue to make
good progress with a growing number of long term contracts and high utilisation
of labour and test beds, where we have invested in increased capability and
capacity. Germany continues to trade to plan with both improving profitability
and order book. Moreover it is also passing on high quality business secured
from the German market to other divisions of the Group. We continue to recruit
in Germany to service the demand and strengthen the business.

As highlighted previously, trading in North America was poor in the first half
following a period of slow order intake over the summer months. Despite the
increasing order book driven by strong order intake in the autumn, this has come
too late to materially improve the first half year figures. We expect a
significant improvement in the second half.

After an unusually high contribution last financial year from two large
contracts, Strategic Consulting has, as planned, focused on building its client
base and order book in the first quarter. Paid utilisation was therefore low in
the first quarter but has now returned to normal levels.

Overall, the 2006-7 financial year has begun satisfactorily, again showing the
benefit of being geographically and technically spread. The solid performance in
the UK and the profit recovery in Germany have provided good balance to the
anticipated slow start for Strategic Consulting and the difficulties in North
America. We expect the first half performance will be broadly similar to last
year. We continue to anticipate that the full year for 2006-7 will be a year of
steady progress.


Further enquiries:

Ricardo plc
Dave Shemmans, Chief Executive                    Tel: [phone]
Paula Bell, Finance Director
Website: www.ricardo.com

Gavin Anderson & Company
Fergus Wylie/Jodie Reilly                         Tel: [phone]


A conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 9.00am UK Time. To
dial into the call, please call Tel: [phone].




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