Clarke(T.) PLC
04 May 2007
T.CLARKE CONFIDENT AT AGM AS ORDER BOOK HITS £200 MILLION
Speaking at today's Annual General Meeting, Russell Race, Chairman of T. Clarke
plc, ('T. Clarke') the Electrical engineering and contracting Group, will make
the following statement:
' The year has started with great promise. Difficulties experienced in the
second half of last year are now behind us. We have made a number of
improvements to the process of management controls in both the core London and
regional businesses. These improvements, along with the continued strength of
our markets give us much confidence in the medium term prospects for the Group.
' Our core market, the commercial property development sector, is continuing to
generate increased demand for our services and we have won a number of new
projects. We must again emphasise the long lead times on some of the larger
schemes, which will reflect in revenues for the years 2008 and 2009. The nature
of these increasingly complex projects means that we are often working on larger
projects for a number of years.
' There is also increased demand for the services of our regional businesses,
particularly in retail, housing and education. We have had a good first quarter
in terms of order intake and we expect a slow improvement in margin recovery.
However, as a consequence of tighter controls in place that improve risk
management there will be slower growth in our regional revenues for 2007. The
board is confident of increased revenues and margins from these businesses for
2008 onwards.
' Commodity prices, particularly copper, remain volatile but, our costly
experiences in 2006 have led us to roll out our lock-in agreements, with both
suppliers and manufacturers, throughout the Group.
' Across the Group, our forward order book stands at £200m. This is ahead of the
situation reported last year when we reported an order book of £150m that was
adjusted for revenue from January 2006 to April 2006. Of our total order book,
£120m is expected to be accounted for in the current year.
' The Group is in good shape. Despite our markets remaining demanding, trading
so far in 2007 has been in line with expectations. In conclusion the Group can
look forward to the exciting, albeit challenging times ahead.'
-ends-
Date: 4th May 2007
For further information contact:
T. Clarke plc cityPROFILE
Pat Stanborough, Chief Executive Simon Courtenay
John Daly, Finance Director William Attwell
Tel: 020-7358-5000 Tel: 020-7448-3244
Web: www.tclarke.co.uk
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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