5th Feb 2019 08:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in castings maker Chamberlin PLC fell significantly Tuesday after it reported market conditions had deteriorated, leading to expectations of a full-year loss despite cost cutting measures being introduced.
Shares in Chamberlin were 17% lower at 56.36 pence early Tuesday.
For the year ending March 2019, trading conditions as having "toughened".
The European turbocharger market has "suffered significant reductions" in customer schedules. The firm explained this was "partly" related to the production disruption caused by the worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure emissions testing regime.
Chamberlin also added that "uncertainties" related to Brexit fed into the tough market and its Petrel specialist lighting business was also described as having suffered a slowdown.
In response, Chamberlin has introduced a number of cost cutting measures and has completed a reassessment of the "likely outturn" of trading in the second half of the year.
The firm now expects its operating loss from continuing operations to be "similar" to the GBP300,000 reported in the first half of the year.
The benefits of the cost reductions, however, will be seen in the year ending March 2020.
Despite the tougher market, the financial position of Chamberlin has been improved by the sale of Exidor Ltd to Assa Abloy Ltd for GBP10 million in late December. This sale has strengthened its balance sheet and also "significantly" reduced its pension liabilities.
After a one-off GBP2.5 million pension contribution using the cash proceeds from the Exidor sale, Chamberlin now reports an adjusted pension liability of GBP1.5 million at the end of September. A year prior this had stood at GBP4.0 million.
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