Abrdn Property Regulatory News (API)

30 Mar 2007 15:03

API Group PLC30 March 2007 30 March 2007 API GROUP PLC CHAIRMAN'S AGM STATEMENT At today's Annual General Meeting of API Group plc, Richard Wright,Non-Executive Chairman, made the following statement. "In the preliminary announcement in December of the Group's results for the yearended 30 September 2006, we indicated that our businesses in the US andAsia-Pacific were continuing to perform strongly and that we anticipated someimprovement in the performance of our European businesses. This has proven to bethe case. Since December, demand for the Group's foil products has been robust in mostmajor markets and we have continued to perform well in the strategicallyimportant North American and Asia-Pacific regions. In contrast, the performanceof our European foils business was impacted by difficulties sourcing productfrom China. A variety of issues lead to restrictions in factory output in Chinaand while production in our UK facilities was increased to compensate,profitability in both regions was adversely affected. The problems have now beenaddressed and the Chinese facility has returned to full production. Progress with the new foils manufacturing facility near Shanghai continues to bein-line with our expectations, with construction scheduled for completion inmid-2007. Production of foil will commence later this year and output from thenew Chinese facility is forecast to increase to almost 50% of the Group's totalavailable capacity by the end of 2008. In Laminates, we continue to reduce our exposure to less attractive markets andto restructure manufacturing to return the business to acceptable levels ofprofitability. Good progress has been made in the first half and while stillloss-making, the underlying performance represents an improvement over the sameperiod in the previous year on lower sales volume. As indicated in the preliminary statement, the Group's accounting reference datehas been changed to 31 March and the Group is currently in an 18 monthaccounting period. The problems encountered with the supply of product fromChina have adversely impacted performance in the six months ending 31 March 2007and consequently the Board expects the results for this period will not show animprovement over the same period in the previous year. The Board expects the results of the Group for the remaining 12 months of theaccounting period to be comparable to the current market expectations for theyear ending 30 September 2007. Ends Enquiries David Walton, Chief Executive, API Group plc 01625 858 700 Tim Spratt / Nicola Biles, Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange