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12 Nov 2014 07:00
12 November 2014
Cape plc
("Cape" or the "Group")
Interim Management Statement
Cape plc, the international provider of critical industrial services to the energy and mineral resources sectors, today issues the following Interim Management Statement for the period 1 January 2014 to date, incorporating the results from 1 January 2014 to 26 October 2014.
Trading
The Group's overall trading remains in line with the Board's expectation.
The UK, Europe and CIS region continues to deliver a steady performance and we are particularly pleased with the strong contribution from the newly-formed Cape Specialist Services business. Prospects in Azerbaijan are improving with workload for the SOCAR Cape joint venture expanding on both maintenance and new project work. Activity in Kazakhstan remains materially lower than historical levels with the timing of major new projects unclear.
The performance of the MENA region remains robust across the three major countries driven by demand from the construction market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a strong margin performance in the Qatar business and success in securing small project and recovery works in the UAE. The onerous contract in Qatar remains challenging but the project team continues to make good progress and we anticipate delivering our works in line with the client's requirements.
The Asia Pacific region performance is mixed. As previously highlighted, there has been a slower ramp up on the Wheatstone project in Australia than originally forecasted but workload is now increasing with approximately 140 employees now mobilised on site. Maintenance activities in Australia remain subdued. Overall, the performance across Asia has remained steady with strong margins in the Philippines and Thailand offsetting a weaker performance in Singapore and Hong Kong.
At the end of October the Group order book was £636 million (29 June 2014: £643 million). Bidding activity remains high across all regions and the MENA region, in particular, has continued to benefit from a strong order intake. As previously indicated, the UK orderbook is impacted by the timing of key maintenance contracts which are expected to be renewed during the next quarter.
Outlook
Given the Group's performance to date and the visibility over the next two months, the Board anticipates that trading for the full-year will be in line with expectation.
Enquiries:
Cape plc
Joe Oatley, Chief Executive +44 (0) 1895 459 979
Michael Speakman, CFO +44 (0) 1895 459 979
Buchanan +44 (0) 207 466 5000
Bobby Morse, Ben Romney, Louise Mason
Forward looking statements
Any forward looking statements made in this document represent the Board's best judgment as to what may occur in the future. However, the Group's actual results for the current and future financial periods and corporate developments will depend on a number of economic, competitive and other factors, some of which will be outside the control of the Group. Such factors could cause the Group's actual results for future periods to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statements included in this announcement.
About Cape:
Cape plc (www.capeplc.com), which is premium listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, provides a range of non-mechanical industrial services including access systems, insulation, coatings, refractory linings and a range of specialist services including environmental services and storage tank construction and maintenance to both industrial plant operators and major international engineering and construction companies.
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