18th May 2007 07:01
IMI PLC18 May 2007 18 May 2007 IMI plc Annual General Meeting CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT IMI plc, the major international engineering group, is holding its 2007 AnnualGeneral Meeting at 12 noon today. At the meeting Norman Askew, Chairman, willcomment: "In 2006 IMI continued to make good progress with strong advances over the prioryear in revenue, operating profit, operating margins and earnings per share. The Fluid Controls businesses performed particularly strongly with an 8% organicgrowth in revenue. The Retail Dispense businesses were affected by lowerinvestment levels within the beverage and retail markets which resulted in anorganic decline in revenue of 3%. The fundamentals in these businesses howeverremain strong and we remain confident in the longer term outlook. Overall, wedelivered organic sales growth of just over 4%. Operating profit, before restructuring costs and intangible amortisation,increased by 17%. We have moved closer towards our long term margin objectivesand saw our operating return on sales advance from 12.3% to 12.7%. The threeyear restructuring programme that we announced last year is on track and nearly£20m was invested to move more of our manufacturing to our already establishedlower cost facilities in Mexico, The Czech Republic and China. We haveadditional investments of around £20m planned for each of this year and next andwe are now starting to see the benefits of this programme. Our balance sheet is in excellent shape and we are well placed to fund furtheracquisitions. The Truflo acquisition, concluded in April 2006, is deliveringexcellent results. £35m was invested in our share buy back programme during 2006 and in the currentyear we have spent an additional £29m on this continuing programme. The Board is recommending that the final dividend be increased by 8% to 11.7p.This makes the total dividend for the year 18.7p, an increase of 7% over lastyear's 17.5p. In the current year to date momentum is encouraging. In Fluid Controls, theSevere Service and Indoor Climate businesses continue to benefit from buoyantmarkets, and continued strength in European capital equipment markets withinFluid Power has more than offset the expected downturn in the US truck market.Within Retail Dispense there are some more encouraging signs, with BeverageDispense exhibiting growth over the prior year and Merchandising Systemsbuilding a promising position for the second half. Our programme to relocatemanufacturing to, and increase procurement from, lower cost economies is ontrack and remains essential in combating the effect of rising materials costsand the impact of unfavourable exchange rate movements. We remain confident ofdelivering another year of good progress in 2007." We will, in accordance with our usual practice, comment further on our firsthalf business performance in a trading update to be issued on 29 June 2007. - Ends - For further information contact: IMI plcGraham Truscott, Communications Director Tel: 0121 717 3712 Weber Shandwick FinancialNick Oborne / Stephanie Badjonat / Charlie Hooper Tel: 020 7067 0700 Note to editors: IMI is a dynamic, worldwide company delivering innovative engineering solutionsto leading global customers in clearly defined niche markets. Its fivebusinesses share a common goal - to convert their industry knowledge and marketinsight into customised, design-engineered solutions which create customeradvantage and value. These include severe service valves, motion and fluidcontrol systems, indoor climate controls, beverage dispense systems, andmerchandising display systems for retail operations. Close customer relationships, strong positions in growing markets and cleardifferentiation through technological innovation or service are the definingcharacteristics of all IMI businesses. IMI is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Information about IMI plc can befound on the website: www.imiplc.com. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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