ARL.L Regulatory News (ARL)

13 Jun 2006 07:01

SMC Group Plc13 June 2006 SMC Group Plc ("SMC" or the "Company" or the "Group") Annual General Meeting At the Company's maiden Annual General Meeting this morning, Chairman Sir RodneyWalker will give the following update on current trading: "The first year of life as a public company has been a very busy one and the Group has made strong progress in many directions including new contract wins, repeat business and referrals from existing clients. We have also continued to implement the Group's acquisition strategy and a further four acquisitions havebeen completed during the first five months of 2006, making a total of seven since admission to AIM on the 10th June 2005. These acquisitions broaden the sectors in which the Group operates, provide wider geographical representation across England and a considerable increase in the construction value of contracts secured, helping to underpin margins and the long term visibility of the Group's revenue. We are encouraged by continued organic, as well as acquisition based growth shown by our businesses and we have already confirmed this year that we have secured projects worth c. £1.4bn in construction value representing c. £16m ofstage fees to the Group. With the acquisition of SMC Charter Architects, a further £800m construction value has been added, representing an additional c. £8m of stage fees. The Company was also informed last week that its client,IIC (Investors in the Community), a consortium led by Land Securities Trillium and Mill Group, has been selected as one of two consortia to proceed to the 'Optimum Bid Stage' on the £250m Leeds City Council Building Schools for the Future programme. The Company's Leeds based subsidiary, SMC Gower Architects,is advising the consortium which will know if it is finally selected later this year. We believe the outlook for the remainder of the year is extremely encouraging on all fronts." -ends- For further information contact: SMC Group PlcStewart McColl 020 7495 5335 Bell PottingerDavid Rydell/Geoff Callow 020 7861 3232 Noble & CompanyMatthew Hall/Rory Boyd 020 7763 2200 Notes to Editors SMC Group Plc is the holding company for a group of architects and designers. It was admitted to trading on AIM on the 10th of June 2005 and has established expertise in a broad range of sectors, including residential, retail, industrial, workplace, transportation, leisure and education. On 30th May 2006 the Group announced the acquisition of Charter Consultant Architects. Recent additions, to the Group such as this have enabled SMC to expand its national coverage throughout England, with offices in London, Warwick, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Lancaster, Exeter, Plymouth, Cambridge, Bedford, Bournemouth and Ipswich. On the 23rd March 2006, the company acquired the business and assets of Alsop, the RIBA Stirling Prize winning design team with offices in London, Toronto, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing a team with a particularly high creative profile. The Group's core strategy is to create an architectural group with the scale and expertise to access the most profitable schemes across a range of sectorsand geographical locations. The Group intends to focus on its organic growth,increasing its share of the UK market and securing larger, higher margin projects, and plans to complement this organic growth with earnings-enhancing acquisitions in order to consolidate its geographic and sector coverage. On 27th April 2006 the Group announced its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2005. It reported that turnover had grown by 159% to £13.5m, profit before tax grown by 280% to £2.9m and profit after tax grown by 263% to £1.9m, all compared to the same period in 2004. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange