C.H. Bailey Plc Regulatory News (BLEY)

24 Jul 2009 12:17



C H BAILEY PLC

Chairman's statement and financial results for the year ended 31 March 2009

Overview

I am pleased to announce that for the year under review, the Group has made a profit of £276,582 (2008 Loss £2,162,787). It must be noted, however, that this profit has arisen principally through a gain on the sale of one of the Group's hotels in Malta.  Whilst it is pleasing to see the Group return to profit, there are still many challenges ahead. 

The Group is trading in possibly the worst affected sectors after banking and finance - namely Engineering and Leisure.  We have put in place various initiatives reducing our central overheads but we are still susceptible to fluctuations in each sector.

UK Operations

During the latter part of 2008 and into early 2009, the Group had to adapt to an increasingly difficult economic and financial environment. On 3rd October 2008, we announced the closure of Midway Precision in the light of poor trading and its very uncertain prospects. Subsequently, as announced on 30th January 2009, the Group had no other option than to appoint administrators to Modular Automation International Limited and so the design and manufacture of automation systems is included in these results as a discontinued operation. 

The other businesses within the engineering division also experienced difficult trading conditions which has resulted in consolidation into a single company, Bailey Industrial Engineering, redundancies and reduced working hours.  These changes have been implemented through both management and shop floor initiatives which have reduced overhead costs, are improving productivity and offer prospects of recovery in the future.

Malta

During the year the Group sold part of the hotel complex. The proceeds were used to reduce borrowings and to provide the Group with additional working capital. This sale has now centred the foreign language student operation onto the main site of the hotel, which will hopefully provide better operational efficiency for the summer season. 

We are also seeing encouraging enquiries and sales for the Palazzo Villa Rosa, as the niche foreign language student market does not seem to have been affected as badly as other leisure markets. We are hopeful that the increased volume of business will fully compensate for the lost revenue and bed stock arising from the sale referred to above.

Tanzania

We have been pleased with the market's response to the recent reopening of the refurbished Oyster Bay Hotel. This has been listed as one of the 101 leading hotels in the world, is being included in many new publications and recently featured in the House & Garden magazine in South Africa. 

Occupancy and revenues are projected to increase, with the Hotel's newly completed facilities becoming more attractive due to the continued traffic congestion in Dar es Salaam.  We are therefore in discussion with the bank to finance future expansion of the hotel and the services it is offering due to the continued demand and success of the current development.

Beho Beho continues to be seen by the market as the top safari operation in the Selous although this year we did see a drop in bed nights by some 25%.  We are expecting some further drop in bednights in the coming year due to the difficult economic climate.

Mikumi Wildlife Camp has increased revenue with reduced occupancy due to increases in the rates.  We are looking at how to redevelop this operation, which caters primarily for the local family weekend market based in Dar es Salaam. 

Investments

The severe turbulence in financial markets has affected the valuation of the Group's investments. We have seen a modest recovery in the portfolio but we are cautious about predicting further recovery due to the continued uncertainty in global markets.

Current Trading and Outlook

The world recession has had a major impact on all our sectors of operation.  We expect this next year to be more difficult than 2008/09 in many respects but feel confident that we are in a position to be able to ride out the current global economic downturn. 

We have made every effort to maintain revenues and reduce our operational costs throughout the Group and I must thank all our employees for their proactive and flexible efforts over the past year that has helped see the Group through these particularly difficult times.

Charles.H.Bailey

Chairman

24th July 2009

  Consolidated income statement 

Year ended 31 March 2009

* Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, goodwill impairment, loss on sale of plant and equipment and profit on sale of property.

Consolidated balance sheet at 31 March 2009

Consolidated cash flow statement 

Year ended 31 March 2009

  Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in net debt in the year

Consolidated statement of recognised income and expense

Year ended 31 March 2009

Notes

1. The abridged financial information set out above does not constitute the Group's statutory accounts as defined under Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The auditors have made an unqualified report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2009 from which this financial information is extracted and there was no statement in their report under either section 237(2) or section 237(3). The report of the auditors on the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2008 was unqualified and there was no statement under either section 237(2) or section 237(3).  Full accounts for the year ended 31 March 2008 have been filed at Companies House.

2. Copies of the 2009 annual report and accounts will be sent to shareholders shortly, and these can be obtained from the Company's registered office or Website: www.chbaileyplc.co.uk.

Enquiries:

C H Bailey Plc Charles Bailey 

Bryan Warren  (Tel: 01633 262961)

Arden Partners plc Richard Day  (Tel: 020 7398 1632)

Colin Smith  (Tel: 0121 423 8940)