24th Jul 2007 07:00
Johnson Matthey PLC24 July 2007 For release at 7.00 am on Tuesday 24th July 2007 Johnson Matthey Plc Interim Management Statement Commenting on current trading at the Annual General Meeting to be held at 12.00noon today, Sir John Banham, Chairman of Johnson Matthey, will provide thefollowing statement: "Johnson Matthey has made a good start to the new financial year. In the firstquarter to 30th June 2007 sales for the continuing businesses grew by 9%. Salesexcluding the value of precious metals increased by 28%, with most of the growthin Environmental Technologies Division. Profit before tax for the continuingbusinesses was up 12% compared with the same period last year. Our new Environmental Technologies Division achieved strong sales growth in thequarter. Emission Control Technologies (ECT) was well ahead, with good demandfor heavy duty diesel catalysts for new vehicles in both Europe and NorthAmerica following the introduction of new emission standards last year. Salesof catalysed soot filters for light duty diesel vehicles were also well up.Process Technologies' sales were ahead of expectations but slightly down on lastyear's very strong first quarter. Orders for the second quarter are encouragingand the business should achieve good growth for the half year. On 4th May 2007 we sold our Hong Kong gold refinery which reduced sales growthin Precious Metal Products Division but operating profit for the division forthe first quarter was well ahead of last year. Platinum group metal prices werestronger than in the same period last year but were less volatile. Thedivision's manufacturing businesses continued to perform very well. Fine Chemicals & Catalysts Division made an encouraging start to the year withgood sales of catalysts and continued recovery in our US PharmaceuticalMaterials business. In our Research Chemicals business, catalogue sales werewell up on last year with a good contribution from our business in China. We spent £10 million on share buy-backs (net of proceeds of employee shareoption exercises) in the quarter and have continued to purchase shares in July.Borrowings at 30th June 2007 were similar to the level at the end of the lastfinancial year despite an increase in working capital to support sales growth.With the payment of the final dividend on 7th August 2007 and further investmentto support the expansion of Environmental Technologies Division we expect netdebt to rise in the second quarter. The outlook for the half year is encouraging with growth in profit before tax inthe second quarter likely to be similar to that in the first." Enquiries: Ian Godwin Director, IR and Corporate Communications 020 7269 8410John Sheldrick Group Finance Director 020 7269 8408Howard Lee The HeadLand Consultancy 020 7367 5225Laura Hickman The HeadLand Consultancy 020 7367 5227 www.matthey.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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