Morgan Crucible Co PLC
18 April 2008
The Morgan Crucible Company plc - Interim Management Statement
The Morgan Crucible Company plc ('Morgan Crucible'), the advanced materials
company, is holding its Annual General Meeting at 11.00am today, where the
following comments will be made regarding current trading, financial performance
and outlook for the financial year. This statement covers the period from 5th
January 2008 to 17th April 2008, and constitutes Morgan Crucible's first Interim
Management Statement as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and
Transparency Rules.
• The Group has continued to experience good trading conditions across all
its divisions in the nine weeks since we reported our full year 2007 results
in late February
• The order book at the end of March continues to be healthy with year on
year improvements in line with those reported in February
• For the year as a whole we expect to deliver performance in line with
guidance set out at the preliminary results in February
• We completed the acquisition of the Technical Ceramics businesses,
Certech and Carpenter Advanced Ceramics from Carpenter Technology
Corporation for c$145million
• A c£160 million pensioner buy-out transaction was completed in March,
between the Trustees of our UK pension schemes and Lucida plc, an FSA
regulated company.
Commenting on the year to date performance and outlook for the Group, Mark
Robertshaw, Chief Executive Officer said:
'The recently completed acquisition of the Carpenter businesses continues to
move our end-market mix towards higher growth, higher margin, less economically
cyclical markets. Furthermore, the buy-out of the £160m of UK pensioner
liabilities significantly de-risks our balance sheet and further reinforces our
already healthy credit position. I am pleased with the progress we have
continued to make since the year end and in particular with the strength of our
order books. We therefore remain confident that the business will make further
progress in 2008'.
Carbon
The overall order book for Carbon is well up on last year with a particularly
strong pipeline in armour both for our silicon carbide materials and for the NP
Aerospace business in which we acquired an equity stake last year. Production
constraints in our US armour business and the continuing 'lock out' situation in
our India facility are expected to restrain growth and impact gross margin in
the first half of 2008. However, the ongoing strength of our order pipeline in
the US coupled with anticipated production changes coming on-stream in Q2 mean
that we expect a stronger second half of the year. The traditional Carbon
businesses of electrical and mechanical are trading in line with expectations.
We are seeing strong growth in our high temperature insulating business, largely
driven by the demand of the solar energy market.
Technical Ceramics
The Technical Ceramics business has enjoyed a good start to the year. The strong
opening order book has delivered healthy sales for the year to date. This year
on year revenue growth is particularly encouraging when we adjust for the end of
life of a 'hard disk drive (HDD)' customer application which still had sales in
Q1 2007.
The main driver of our results has been the focus placed on winning new business
combined with the continued strength of our medical and aerospace customers: the
strength in these sectors has more than offset some softness in markets related
to the building industry and telecoms. The aerospace and medical markets remain
a key area of focus for the division. The acquisition of the Carpenter
businesses was successfully completed at the end of March and takes the division
further into the growing aerospace market.
Insulating Ceramics
The Thermal Ceramics business has seen good top line growth year to date against
last year particularly in light of the strong project-based business in H1 2007.
This growth is driven primarily by strong Asian sales with Latin America also
trading well.
The order book remains robust especially in chemical and processing (CPI) and
energy end-markets for delivery into Asia and the Gulf Region. The roll-out of
our High Temperature and Low Shot Superwool(R) products continues with sales of
High Temperature Superwool(R) starting in North America from February of this
year. We continue to convert our network of manufacturing facilities to
Superwool production capability with the Japanese facility having been recently
converted. Our newly redesigned and enhanced global R&D centre in Bromborough,
UK is now close to completion and will be formally opened in the second quarter.
Good trading conditions in the Molten Metal Systems business continued into the
first quarter of 2008, with overall sales increasing in line with expectations.
Whilst some of this increase was attributable to stock building by distributors,
in advance of the planned transfer of UK manufacturing to our German and Indian
plants, underlying business levels and order intake continued to exhibit
underlying growth, with all regions contributing.
Financial Position
The balance sheet remains strong and there have been no significant changes in
the financial position of the Group since that reported as at 4 January 2008,
other than the acquisition noted above (funded through an increase in bank
borrowings), and the pensioner buy-out transaction that was completed in March.
Morgan Crucible made a one-off contribution to the schemes of c£4 million as
part of this pensioner buy-out transaction.
Outlook
The Group continues to enjoy a healthy order book. Based on year to date trading
and our healthy current order book, performance for the full year is anticipated
to be in line with expectations and the Board remains confident about the
outlook for the future.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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