17th Sep 2007 07:00
Armour Group PLC17 September 2007 Armour Group plc ("Armour" or the "Group") Trading Update Trading Statement Armour is pleased to announce that it expects profits before interest, tax andexceptional items for the year ended 31 August 2007 to exceed marketexpectations. Underlying basic earnings per share for the year ended 31 August2007 are also expected to be ahead of the current market expectations of 4.6p.Both the core product based operating divisions, Armour Home and ArmourAutomotive, have made strong progress in the year. The preliminary announcement of the results for the year ended 31 August 2007will be made on 6 November 2007. Sale of Business Armour announces the sale of its custom installation services business, ArmourCustom Services, to its management team. This business provides installationservices for home theatre and entertainment systems to house builders and homeowners. This business, which represents less than 5% of the Group's annualturnover, has been loss making in the last 2 years and is not core to Armour'sfast growing and highly successful branded product businesses in the home andautomotive markets. The disposal generated a net £0.4 million cash inflow and will result in anexceptional loss of approximately £2.7 million in the financial year ended 31August 2007, the majority of which is represented by the write off of goodwill. Extension of Trading Agreement with Lenbrook Corporation The Group is pleased to announce an extension of the trading agreement announcedon 3 January 2007 with the Lenbrook Corporation of Toronto, Canada (www.lenbrook.com). Lenbrook America, a subsidiary of Lenbrook Corporation, hasbeen appointed as the exclusive distributor of Armour's award winning range ofQED cables and interconnects (www.qed.co.uk) in the USA. Lenbrook will sell QEDalongside its world-renowned brands of NAD electronics (www.nadelectronics.com)and PSB speakers (www.psbspeakers.com). The official launch by Lenbrook Americaof QED in the USA was at the CEDIA US trade exhibition in Denver in the firstweek of September. Armour, through its Armour Home division, was appointed by Lenbrook on 1 March2007 as its exclusive distributor in the UK for its NAD and PSB brands. Launch of In-car Bluetooth Handsfree Phone Kits Armour's automotive division, Armour Automotive, launched at the recent IFAconsumer electronics show its range of in-car Bluetooth music streaming andhandsfree mobile phone kits under a new brand, IO (www.my-io.com). The IO range,which will include five products, has been designed to deliver class leadingfunctionality at all of the key market price points. The design and developmentof the IO product range has been led by our own in-house research and developmentteams in conjunction with specialist third party technology partners. Theinitial response from major customers that have seen the products demonstratedhas been very positive. The first three IO products will be available for sale atthe beginning of November. 17 September 2007 Further Details: George Dexter Armour Group PLC Tel: 01892 502700John Harris Richard Kauffer KBC Peel Hunt Tel: 020 7418 8900 Trevor Bass Threadneedle Communications Tel: 020 7936 9666 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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