30th Apr 2008 07:01
Croda International PLC30 April 2008 30 April 2008 Croda International Plc AGM trading statement Martin Flower, Chairman of Croda International Plc, is due to make the followingstatement at today's Annual General Meeting: "I am pleased to report that the exceptionally strong trading momentum seen inthe second half of 2007 was sustained throughout the first quarter as wecontinued to experience robust demand for our products around the world. For the 3 months ended 31 March 2008, continuing turnover increased to £265.3m,up 16.4% from £227.9m in the same period last year. Continuing pre-tax profitwas up 84.8% to £27.9m compared to £15.1m in the first quarter of 2007. Our exitfrom low margin commodity business reduced volumes but we made further progressin sales, margins and profits in both our Consumer Care and IndustrialSpecialities divisions. During the quarter we increased our average selling prices by 16.5% over thesame period last year as we continue to fully recover input cost inflation. Theintegration of Uniqema is going well and we remain on track to deliver synergiesof at least £30m per annum by the end of 2008. Our robust underlying performance was further enhanced by the significantincrease in glycerine prices, which have more than doubled from the same periodlast year, contributing an additional £4.5 million to Group profits. However, itis likely that glycerine prices will weaken during the rest of the year. Inaddition, the strong euro meant that we had favourable currency translationoverall during the first quarter. Continuing our strategy to focus on core businesses, we sold our 46.5% interestin Baxenden Chemicals for a total cash consideration of £13m on 29 February2008. Assisted by our strong trading performance, this disposal helped to reducenet debt from £366.0m at the year end to £356.8m by the end of the firstquarter. This year we are moving to more detailed quarterly reporting in line with bestpractice. A breakdown of the results for the first quarter, including salesanalysis, divisional sales and profit trends together with a quarterly split oflast year's results, is attached to this statement. Overall, the outlook for 2008 remains favourable and the Board continues to be confident of delivering further progress in line with its current expectations for the full year. Finally, Croda will be announcing its interim results on 29 July 2008." For further information, please contact: Mike Humphrey, Group Chief Executive Tel: 01405 860551Sean Christie, Group Finance Director Charlie Armitstead, Financial Dynamics Tel: 020 7269 7275 The company will host a conference call for analysts at 8.00am today:Dial-In: +44 (0) 1452 542 303Please quote 44 66 80 70 to gain access to the call Croda International PlcUnaudited income statement before exceptional items31 March 2008£m 3 months to 3 months to 31 March 31 March 2008 2007 Change Consumer Care 112.5 99.8 Industrial Specialities 152.8 128.1 Revenues from continuing operations 265.3 227.9 16.4% Consumer Care 23.7 18.5 Industrial Specialities 8.4 2.3 Operating profit from continuing operations 32.1 20.8 54.3% Continuing operations operating margin 12.1% 9.1% Net bank and loan interest payable (5.8) (6.9) Net retirement benefit scheme interest receivable 1.6 1.2 Profit before tax from continuing operations 27.9 15.1 84.8% Profit after tax from discontinued operations 0.3 1.6 Analysis of turnover uplift Continuing operations sales volumes -5.6% Currency impact 5.5% Price/mix 16.5% 16.4% 2007 trading by Quarter Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Year Consumer Care 99.8 93.4 95.6 86.2 375.0 Industrial Specialities 128.1 119.8 122.7 140.5 511.1 Revenues from continuing operations 227.9 213.2 218.3 226.7 886.1 Consumer Care 18.5 18.5 18.3 19.6 74.9 Industrial Specialities 2.3 2.3 2.3 5.8 12.7 Operating profit from continuing operations 20.8 20.8 20.6 25.4 87.6 Interest (5.7) (5.8) (5.9) (4.8) (22.2) Profit before tax from continuing operations 15.1 15.0 14.7 20.6 65.4 Profit after tax from discontinued operations 1.6 2.2 2.0 1.2 7.0 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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