AGM & Interim Management Stat

RNS Number : 1420S

TT electronics PLC

13 May 2009

 



TTG

TT electronics plc

AGM and Interim Management Statement

TT electronics plc (the 'Group'), a world leader in sensor and component technologies, will hold its Annual General Meeting today, where the following comments will be made on current trading, the financial position and the outlook for the current financial year. This Interim Management Statement, as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, covers the period from 1 January 2009 to the date of this announcement.

Current Trading

As we noted in our March announcement, the Group experienced a continued significant weakening in customer demand in January and February as the global economic recession severely affected most of our major markets.  Further management action has been taken to adjust the cost base in line with current levels of demand. Although there is as yet no evidence of an improvement in our key markets, overall trading remains in line with our expectations. 

Strategy

We continue to make progress with the strategy announced in January.  The Components division is developing new products to leverage our technical expertise. For example, we have developed components for the kinetic energy recovery system introduced on Formula 1 cars and we expect this technology to be applied to other markets in the future. In addition, a new range of connectors developed to enhance our product range for the defence market are being certified for military use.  The Secure Power division continues to develop its service business including opening an office in Aberdeen, Scotland, to handle a recently secured contract for the maintenance of offshore uninterruptible power supply equipment.  In the IMS division we have merged the management of our UK businesses in Rogerstone and Aylesbury to allow us to serve our customers more efficiently and to further reduce headcount. New divisional directors for the General Industrial and Sensors divisions have recently joined the Group. The restructuring of our Sensors division has continued as planned with a reduction in headcount of 225 in Germany effective from 1 April.  

Financial Position

The Group has a sound balance sheet and generated positive operating cash flow before restructuring expenditure.  We continue to target a sustained reduction in working capital.  As we anticipated, net debt was affected by the significant restructuring actions taken in the first four months of the year and also by an overall trading loss arising from the lower volumes, offset to some extent by reduced working capital and capital expenditure.

The Group trades comfortably within its banking facilities and well within covenant levels. Negotiations on renewing the two smaller term facilities that fall due in the last quarter of 2009 have been positive and discussions are now centred upon the detailed terms of the renewals. 

Outlook

The actions so far taken to implement our strategy are enabling significantly greater emphasis on those technologies and products which exploit our underlying strengths. Targeting specialist markets where we have or are able to establish a strong competitive position is expected to create opportunities to better serve our customers and increase margins and improve performance in the medium term.

The results for the first half of the year will reflect the actions taken to realign the cost base.  There is limited visibility in market demand and we expect trading conditions to remain difficult for the rest of the year. The outlook for the year remains in line with our expectations. 

Enquiries:

TT electronics plc Geraint Anderson, Group Chief Executive Shatish Dasani, Group Finance Director	Tel: [phone]
Biddicks Zoë Biddick	Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:

TT electronics plc is a technology based group providing components, sensors, integrated manufacturing services and secure power solutions to a broad base of customers worldwide

For more information visit www.ttelectronics.com

 

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