15 Mar 2006 15:57
Chamberlin & Hill PLC15 March 2006 CHAMBERLIN & HILL PLC 16 March 2005 Property sale and pension contribution Chamberlin & Hill plc (the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion ofthe following transactions: 1 Following the closure of the Company's Bloxwich iron foundry and therelocation of its output to other sites (as noted in our Interim Results of 30November 2005), on 15 March 2006 the Company entered into a contract for thesale of the Bloxwich freehold site to Midland Properties (West Midlands) Limitedfor a cash consideration of £1.675 million. The full proceeds were received oncompletion. Profit on the sale of the Bloxwich site, which had a book value of £0.63million, is expected to more than offset closure costs and severance payments toemployees, which are estimated to be in the region of £0.7 million. 2 The Interim Results also noted that the Company continued to examine ways tomitigate the deficit in its final salary pension scheme. On receipt of the cash relating to the sale of the Bloxwich site, a lump sumcontribution of £1.5 million was therefore immediately made into the Chamberlin& Hill plc Staff Pension Scheme. At the same time, the Company has agreed withthe Trustees of the Scheme that the maximum period over which the remainingactuarial deficit will be made good by additional regular contributions will bereduced from the current 20 years to 10 years. This will leave ongoingcontribution levels broadly unchanged. For further information, contact details are: Chamberlin & Hill plcBarrie Williams, CEO 01922 721 411 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange