26th Jun 2006 07:01
Inchcape PLC26 June 2006 26 June 2006 Inchcape pre-close trading statement Inchcape plc, the international automotive retail group, enters a close periodon 1 July 2006 ahead of its interim results announcement for the six monthsending 30 June 2006, on 3 August 2006. The trading performance of the Group, and of the businesses in each of our sixcore markets, continues to be in line with expectations, as set out in the AGMtrading statement issued on 11 May 2006. The 2006 subsidiaries' headline taxrate is likely to be c. 22.0%, around 3.5 percentage points lower than lastyear's rate, mainly due to the favourable settlement of UK prior years' taxcomputations. The Group has successfully concluded the earnings enhancing share buy backprogramme. Since 15 April 2005, a total of £65.0m has been returned toshareholders through the purchase of 17,880,606 shares at an average price of£3.64 per share. We remain confident that we will deliver further growth and strong cashgeneration in 2006, leveraging our broad geographic spread and our focus onoperational excellence. Notes to editors For further information, please contact: Group Communications, Inchcape plc020 7546 0022 Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen/Barnaby Fry)020 7357 9477 Inchcape is a scale automotive retail group operating in Australia, Belgium,Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. The Group also has operations in anumber of other global markets. In addition to growing our core businesses, weare looking to develop scale operations in new and emerging regions. Werepresent leading automotive brands and operate either a retail, or a verticallyintegrated retail model (i.e. exclusive distribution and retail), depending onthe market. Our current 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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