22nd Apr 2005 11:05
Morgan Crucible Co PLC22 April 2005 CHAIRMAN'S AGM STATEMENT As reported at the time of our Preliminary Results announcement in February,trading and market conditions in 2005 remain in line with those experienced inthe second half of 2004. External economic pressures such as adverse currencyeffects, particularly that of the weakening dollar, rising energy prices, andincreased raw material costs remain factors in our trading. Given thesignificant degree of change in these factors over the past year, this willbecome particularly relevant when comparing the first half of 2005 to the firsthalf of 2004. Not withstanding these input price and currency pressures, theBoard anticipates that Morgan's overall performance, for both the first half of2005 and the full year, will be in line with expectations. We continue to focus on improving our productivity and cost base. Our profitimprovement programme announced in February 2004 remains on track. Morgan's costbase continued to decline in 2004 whilst year on year revenue from continuingbusinesses grew over 7% on a constant currency basis. The focus of reducing debtachieved good results; net debt at the end of the year was £147.5 million,compared with £249.3 million in 2003, representing a reduction of over £100million. During 2004 the Group disposed of a number of non-core activities. The mostsignificant divestment was that of the Auto and Consumer division in June, whichreduced the number of our divisions from six to five, thus simplifying thestructure of the Group. We also continued to divest, close or partially closemanufacturing sites during the year which has significantly reduced Morgan'soperational complexity. Morgan Crucible has delivered another year of progress and we are now betterplaced within our chosen markets to achieve our aim of superior shareholderreturn. I would like to thank our employees for their hard work and subsequentachievements, and our investors for their continued support. For further information please contact: The Morgan Crucible Company plc Victoria Gould, Director of Group Communications Tel: 01753 837 000 Finsbury GroupCharlotte Hepburne-ScottLucy Slater Tel: 020 7251 3801 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Morgan Advanced Materials