AIM: CMH
05 February 2019
CHAMBERLIN PLC
("Chamberlin" or "the Group")
Trading Update
Chamberlin, the specialist castings and engineering group, announces an update on trading for the financial year to 31 March 2019 reflecting both current trading conditions and the sale of Exidor Limited ("Exidor") to Assa Abloy Ltd. announced on 20 December 2018.
The sale of Exidor for £10m cash has strengthened Chamberlin's balance sheet and also significantly reduced the Group's pension liability. After a one-off contribution of £2.5m from the cash proceeds from the sale, the adjusted reported pension liability as at 30 September 2018 is £1.5m (30 September 2017: £4.0m).
While the Group's financial position has been strengthened, current trading conditions have toughened. Customer schedules for the European turbocharger market have suffered significant reductions, partly related to the disturbance to production schedules resulting from the new WLTP* emissions testing regime. There are also uncertainties relating to Brexit, and the Petrel business has experienced a slowdown.
The underlying operating loss (before exceptional items and legacy pension costs) of the continuing operations in the year to 31 March 2018 was £0.3m. The underlying operating loss of the continuing operations for the six months to 30 September 2018 was also £0.3m.
In response to the change in trading conditions, the Board has implemented a number of cost reduction measures and also completed a reassessment of the likely outturn in the second half of the current financial year. It now anticipates that the loss in this period will be similar to that in the first half. The benefits of the cost reduction measures will be seen in the next financial year to 31 March 2020.
* Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014
Enquiries
Chamberlin plc Kevin Nolan, Chief Executive Neil Davies, Finance Director |
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T: 01922 707100
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Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Russell Cook, Katy Birkin |
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T: 020 7397 8900 |
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KTZ Communications (Financial PR) Katie Tzouliadis, Dan Mahoney
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T: 020 3178 6378 |