The Birmingham office of Hyder Consulting is likely to benefit from London's preparation for the 2012 Olympics, the international engineering giant said yesterday.

Chief executive Tim Wade said a combination of transport infrastructure and regeneration was likely to provide the company with contracts totalling millions over the coming six years.

The comments were made as Hyder more than doubled its profits more the first half and boosted its interim dividend by 75 per cent.

Hyder said its results were a little ahead of expectations, with pretax profit jumping to £2.6 million in the six months to September 30 from £1.2 million. Turnover rose 27 per cent to £80.9 million from £63.6 million.

The interim dividend rises to 0.35 pence a share from 0.20 pence.

At the end of the first half, order books stood at £218 million, up 18 per cent from the end of March.

The engineering design and advisory group said its strong order books and improving margins bode well.

Mr Wade said the results reflected "robust" growth across all its markets.

"We have also benefited from applying the principle of looking at value rather than the top-line. We want to target those who are prepared to pay for the quality that we believe we offer."

The company, which previously specialised on design, is increasingly focusing on building its advisory services arm.

"I think it would be fair to say we are premier league in design and we will be in 20 years time," Mr Wade said, "However, we would also like to take the opportunity to build on the rising worldwide demand for advisors specialising in the environment and transport planning."

Hyder, said it hoped to boost the division from 15 per cent to around 35 per cent of the group's operations over a three to five-year period. This would be both through organic growth and acquisition.

The firm has acquired a number of companies in Aus tralia and said its attentions were now turned to expanding in both the UK and Germany.

"There are more opportuni ties in Australia, but the busi ness is busy digesting what has already been acquired."

The company also operates in Hong Kong, China and the Middle East.

Hyder is currently working on the development of the world's tallest building - the Burj Tower in Dubai.

Hyder said it had benefited from lower tax in Dubai and from exceptional tax losses in Australia.