Aukett Swanke Regulatory News (AUK)

27 Mar 2008 10:46

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group PLC27 March 2008 Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group Plc AGM Statement Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Group Plc, the international architectural and interiordesign practice with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Russia held itsAnnual General Meeting earlier today at which all five proposed resolutions werepassed. At the meeting, Gerry Deighton, Chairman, said "I stated in the Annual Report my wish to retire following the AGM and thesearch for a new non-executive chairman from the property industry is welladvanced. We therefore expect to announce the appointment of the new chairman indue course at which time I will step down from the board and take up theposition of President. As anticipated the first half of our 2007/08 financial year has seen a morevolatile commercial property market in the UK with some projects delayed in theretail sector or for planning permission reasons. However this is countered byour successful re-focusing on the Middle East, particularly in the United ArabEmirates, where we have secured commissions in respect of projects with 2,300hotel rooms and the prospect of a number of commercial office opportunities. Accordingly we anticipate that turnover and profits for the current year will beweighted towards the second half of the year, in contrast to last year when theprofits in the first half were stronger than the second half of the year. Recent enquiries and commissions throughout our international practice providethe Board with good reason to remain confident about our longer term prospectsand the sustainability of our performance over our planning period to 2010." JM Finn Capital Markets, the Company's nominated adviser and broker, havenotified the Company that with effect from 1 March 2008 they will be conductingbusiness under the trading name of FinnCap. Enquiries Aukett Fitzroy Robinson www.aukettfitzroyrobinson.com Nicholas Thompson, Chief Executive 020 7636 8033 Duncan Harper, Finance Director cosec@aukettfitzroyrobinson.com FinnCap www.finncap.com Sam Smith 020 7600 1658 Clive Carver Adventis Financial PR www.adventis.co.uk Chris Steel 020 7034 4759 Tarquin Edwards 020 7034 4758 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange