5th Jan 2005 07:00
Ricardo PLC05 January 2005 5 January 2005 Ricardo plc Close Period Trading Update The Board of Ricardo plc is today providing a trading update ahead of itsresults in respect of the half year ended 31 December 2004. Ricardo plans toannounce its Interim Results on Monday 21 February 2005. The Group continued to see an improving performance during the first half. Eventhough the pressures facing the global automotive market continue to createuncertainty for the industry as a whole, we are seeing more favourable prospectsfor our business compared to this time last year. During the period, we werepleased to secure a number of contracts from a broader and improved customerbase. Our order book continued to grow and was up 15% year on year. Our UK businesses continued to make progress. We are pleased to report thatRicardo Consulting Engineers had a good first half and performed slightly aheadof expectations and our electronics business performed particularly well. Thesebetter performances helped to offset weak trading at our transmissions andvehicle engineering businesses which both continue to face difficult marketconditions. Ricardo Strategic Consulting also had a good first half. It performed ahead ofexpectations and moved into profit in the period as anticipated at the time ofour preliminary results. Whilst performance in our US and German operations was very much as anticipated,we see more scope for improvement. Business in Asia, in particular China andJapan is developing well, and we continue to see new opportunities and interestfrom these markets. The progress made in the first half gives us increasing confidence in ourability to deliver a result for the full year in line with the Group'sexpectations. However, whilst it is pleasing that performance in the first halfof the year was a little ahead of expectations, we consider it to be too earlyto revise our view on the outturn for the full year. Enquiries: Ricardo plc Tel: 01273 455611Rodney Westhead, Chief ExecutiveAndrew Goodburn, Finance Directorwww.Ricardo.com----------------- Gavin Anderson & Company Tel: 0207 554 1400Laura Hickman/Charlotte Stone This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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