12th May 2005 07:01
Inchcape PLC12 May 2005 12 May 2005 Inchcape AGM Trading Statement In his statement to shareholders at today's Annual General Meeting (AGM), SirJohn Egan, Chairman of Inchcape plc, will make the following comments aboutcurrent trading: "As expected the UK car market is forecast to be slightly lower than 2004.Despite this, UK Retail has enjoyed a positive start to the year. It is expectedthat this will continue. In addition the recently announced acquisition of sixMercedes-Benz dealerships will also benefit the UK. "In Greece and Belgium our market share in the year to date has been lower thananticipated. However, better product availability and a slightly broader productrange should help our performance in both markets in the second half of theyear. "In Australia market conditions remain strong and our performance is ahead ofprevious expectations. "In Hong Kong we anticipate profitability will be in line with our expectationsat the start of the year. "The Government of Singapore has issued the COE (Certificate of Entitlement)quota for the year to March 2006, and the resultant car market for 2005 is nowexpected to be higher than 2004. This is better than we had previously expectedand will impact positively on profitability. "We have commenced the earnings enhancing £65.0m share buy back programme,previously announced in our preliminary results statement on 28 February 2005.As at close of business on 11 May 2005, £14.6m has been returned to shareholdersthrough the purchase of c. 764,000 shares at an average price of 1910p pershare. "Inchcape continues to benefit from its broad geographic spread and strongoperational performance. The overall trading conditions seen to date leave usconfident that 2005 will show further progress for Inchcape, and we are wellplaced to continue with our record of profit growth and strong cash generation." In a separate announcement today, Inchcape has presented its unaudited full yearresults, for the year ended 31 December 2004, under International FinancialReporting Standards (IFRS), which shows that the effect on profit before tax andearnings is broadly neutral subject to the achievement of hedge effectivenessunder IAS 39. Notes to editors You can view the IFRS announcement by visiting our website www.inchcape.com. The accompanying AGM slides and speeches will be available online, under'Presentations', from approximately 1200hrs today on our website. The results ofthe AGM resolutions will also be available today, under 'News Desk', from1600hrs. For further information, please contact: Group Communications, Inchcape plc 020 7546 0022 Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen/Barnaby Fry) 020 7357 9477 Inchcape, an international automotive services group, provides qualityrepresentation for its manufacturer partners, a choice of channels to market andproducts for its retail customers and a range of business services for itscorporate customers. Operations are focused on the UK, Greece, Belgium,Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Inchcape's activities include exclusiveImport, Distribution and Retail, Business Services, automotive E-commerce andFinancial Services. Our key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru, BMW,the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. For further information, visit us at www.inchcape.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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