ARL.L Regulatory News (ARL)

9 May 2006 08:00

SMC Group Plc09 May 2006 SMC Group Plc('SMC' or 'the Company') New Contract Wins SMC Group Plc, the architects and design business, is pleased to issue detailstoday of the construction value and new fees contracted since its previousannouncement in February 2006. The following are some of the projectscontributing to a total construction value of over £800m and represent stagefees for SMC in excess of £10m, to be earned over the next few years. Mixed-use Developments: * £200m Mixed-use development for 6 office buildings, hotel, retail and residential complex Shanghai Port International * £50m Mixed-use development offices/residential/retail, Beijing, China for Capitaland * £28m Mixed-use masterplan, Walsall for Urban Splash * £20m Mixed-use development, Liskeard for Brook Street Properties * £18m Mixed-use development, Manchester for Norwest Holst Offices/Office Parks: * £40m Various office development projects in Leamington Spa, Huntingdon, Ham Green, Pampisford Business Park, Phase II, Cambridge, York, Dolbere Meadow, Plymouth Industrial/Distribution: * £22m Major distribution facility, Humberside for Sterling Capital * £50m Nailstone Quarry re-development for Strategic Land * £37m Various developments in Manchester, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Okehampton, Hertford, Birmingham Residential: * £10m Residential development Manchester for Urban Splash * £16m Residential development Salford for Vermont Developments * £14m Residential development Trafford for Country & Metropolitan * £28m Residential development Manchester * £40m Residential tower development Toronto for Urbancorp * £22m Various developments in Patley Bridge, Lancaster, Huntingdon, Cowley Bridge Retail: * £10m Retail Park Rotherham for British Land * £20m Various developments in Garstang, Nottingham, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Reading, St Helens Burgess Hill Schools/Universities: * £30m New build and refurbishment for City College Norwich * £16m Various developments in Lancashire, Cambridge, Birmingham A large number of companies have invited SMC Education to work with them on bidsfor the various Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes. Thesedevelopments are in some cases repeat business for existing clients (50% of allSMC business is repeat business). New business continues to be generated in many different sectors across England.International work continues to flow into SMC Alsop and we are competing for anincreasing number of international contracts, yet remaining selective in whichopportunities we elect to pursue. Examples of these include the Boston ArtSchool, Massachusetts, the Garden Ring site Singapore, major central mixed-usedevelopment in Kuwait including hotels, residential, offices and educationbuildings. As stated at the time of the acquisition of Alsop in March 2006, bringing such aworld renowned architect as Will Alsop and his team into the Group wouldincrease our profile within the international architectural industry whilesignificantly increasing our global exposure to clients. This has proven to bethe case. - ends - For further information please contact: SMC Group Plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7495 5335 Stewart McColl Noble & Company Limited Tel: +44 (0)20 7763 2200 Matthew Hall Bell Pottinger Tel: +44 (0)20 7861 3232 David Rydell/Geoff Callow Notes to Editors SMC Group Plc is the holding company for a group of architects and designers. Ithas established expertise in a broad range of sectors, including residential,retail, industrial, workplace, transportation, leisure and education. On the 23rd March 2006, the Group announced the acquisition of Alsop followingthe announcement by the group on the 3rd February of the acquisition of PenroseArchitects and Covell Matthews Architects. All these additions to the Grouphave enabled SMC to expand its national coverage throughout England to includeoffices in London, Leeds, Manchester, Lancaster, Warwick, to an internationalcoverage with offices in Toronto, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore. The Company's core strategy is to create an architectural group with the scaleand 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 marginprojects. The Group plans to complement this organic growth withearnings-enhancing acquisitions in order to consolidate its geographic andsector coverage. On 27th April 2006 the Group announced it full year figures for the year ended31st December 2005, showing that turnover had grown by 159% to £13.5m, profitbefore tax grown by 280% to £2.9m, gross profit margin grown by 182% to £7.4m,EBITDA grown by 218% to £3.7m and profit after tax grown by 263% to £1.9m. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange