Chamberlin Plc Regulatory News (CMH)

24 November 2010

 CMH

CHAMBERLIN PLC

("Chamberlin" or "the Group")

Half Year Results

For the six months to 30 September 2010

Key Points

·; Group returned to profitability in first half

- reflects ongoing improvement in sales trend

·; Revenues up 29% to £18.3m (2009: £14.2m)

·; Underlying operating profit of £222,000 (2009*: loss of £635,000)

Statutory operating profit of £190,000 (2009*: loss of £539,000)

·; Underlying profit before tax of £163,000 (2009*: loss of £692,000)

Statutory profit before tax of £91,000 (2009*: loss of £713,000) 

·; Positive operating cash flow at £383,000 (2009: inflow of £100,000)

·; Underlying earnings per share of 1.28p (2009: loss per share of 8.21p)

Basic earnings per share of 0.58p (2009: loss per share of 8.42p)

·; Foundry activity recovered strongly during first half

- heavy castings traded at 90% of pre-recession levels

- light castings traded at 80% of pre-recession levels

·; Significant new contracts in H1 - will support ongoing recovery

·; Pre-recession modernisation programme benefiting Chamberlin's competitive position

·; Full year results anticipated to be ahead of current market expectations

* 2009 figures stated before exceptional costs of £236,000 and unrealised foreign currency income of £332,000 and associated tax impact. 2010: no such items

Chairman, Tom Brown, commented,

"I am very pleased to report Chamberlin's return to profitability. Results for the half year show sales up by 29% over the same period last year to £18.3m. While that is still approximately 20% below the Group's pre-recession first half peak of £23.5m in 2008, we expect revenues to continue to build.

The modernisation programme we completed before the downturn and the measures we took during recession, to reduce costs and further improve efficiencies are benefiting Chamberlin's competitive position as the trading backdrop improves. We are now winning business as engineering demand recovers both in the UK and globally.

In addition, with the platform for growth in place, we are also returning to our aim of acquiring complementary businesses, fitting our criteria of "difficult things done well".

We have experienced recovery across almost all our activities and with continuing evidence of growth and our expectations of new orders we believe that the Group is likely to deliver pre-tax profits for the full year ahead of current market forecasts."

Enquiries

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Introduction

Results for the six months to 30 September 2010 are very encouraging and I am very pleased to report Chamberlin's return to profitability. What is especially pleasing about these results is the continuation of the improving sales trend that first emerged towards the end of 2009 and which strengthened as we moved into 2010. Results for the half year show sales up by 29% over the same period last year to £18.3m. While that is still approximately 20% below the Group's pre-recession first half peak of £23.5m in 2008, we expect revenues to continue to build as we move through the remainder of the current financial year.

Significantly, with the cost base of the Group at a lower level than before the downturn, and with production capacity fully intact, we were able to accelerate Chamberlin's return to profitability and the Group delivered underlying operating profits for the first half of £222,000. This compares to an underlying operating loss of £635,000 in the first half of last year and demonstrates a £857,000 turnaround half year on half year. Against the second half of last year, which saw an underlying operating loss of £260,000, this result shows an improvement of £482,000.

With recovery established across almost all our activities and an improvement in the trading picture, we are optimistic that the Group will deliver better results for the full year than current market expectations.

Results

Revenues for the six months to 30 September 2010 increased by 29% to £18.3m (2009: £14.2m). Although as noted this is 20% down on Chamberlin's pre-recession peak, the cost reduction measures implemented during the downturn delivered an underlying operating profit of £222,000 (2009: loss of £635,000). No exceptional costs were incurred and the underlying profit before tax was £163,000 (2009: loss before tax of £692,000). Underlying earnings per share was 1.28p against a loss per share of 8.21p last year.

Throughout the downturn, Chamberlin has generated net cash from operations. The return to profitability increased the cash from operations to £383,000 in the first half, (2009: £100,000) and overall the business generated net cash of £177,000.

Net borrowings at 30 September 2010 reduced to £3.27m (31 March 2010: £3.45m and 30 September 2009: £3.53m). These continue to be financed by an overdraft facility of £5.0m with HSBC.

Operations

Foundry activity, which accounts for approximately 80% of Group revenues, has recovered strongly in the first half and we have recruited additional staff in two of our three operating sites.

Specialist castings for automotive turbochargers have driven demand in our light castings foundry at Walsall, with the improvement in volumes on existing products supplemented by demand for new designs. Our first turbocharger part supplied to IHI Charging Systems International, a new German customer for us in this market, has now reached production volume and the development programme for the other castings in this product family is on schedule. Turbocharger castings will provide significant growth for the Walsall foundry in the future as emissions regulations necessitate the use of turbocharger technology in petrol-engined vehicles. Our Walsall operation is also ideally suited to supplying the hydraulics market with complex small castings and we continue to make good progress in this area. In the first half, the Walsall site operated at approximately 80% of pre-recession workload and we anticipate that this will exceed 90% in the final quarter of the current financial year.

Our Leicester foundry, which together with Walsall comprises the Chamberlin & Hill Castings business unit, has seen a slower recovery and traded at approximately 65% of pre-recession volume in the first half. We have achieved significant synergies by combining the management of the Leicester and Walsall sites, and Leicester is now profitable even at this level of activity. The combination of the sales function for the two sites has resulted in better coverage of the market and we have made good progress in selling Leicester's expertise in specialist materials to new customers.

Our Scunthorpe foundry, which specialises in heavy castings and trades as Russell Ductile Castings ("RDC"), has seen the strongest recovery in demand and in the first half operated at 90% of pre-recession volume. Its expertise in highly engineered heavy castings and long-standing relationships with major original equipment makers ("OEMs") has allowed the business to benefit from the export-led recovery in the UK engineering sector. In the second quarter RDC achieved its highest ever order entry and will soon exceed pre-recession volumes. First half orders included a major order from a UK OEM for £1.4m of castings for a single project in the natural gas sector. This order is scheduled for staged delivery over the next 18 months and may lead to additional business. Specialist heavy casting is an attractive sector with a limited number of credible competitors and I have no doubt that RDC will make a significant contribution to Chamberlin's results in the coming years.

Our engineering businesses, which account for around 20% of Group revenues, experienced a less severe downturn in their markets during the recession, and are continuing to trade profitably. Our focus in these businesses is on increased efficiency and profitable growth in market share and I am particularly pleased to report that our security business, which produces emergency exit hardware under the Exidor brand, is now the market leader in the UK. We are in the process of re-branding this business which currently trades as Fred Duncombe Ltd in order to capitalise on the Exidor brand name.

Outlook

The modernisation programme we completed before the downturn and the measures we took during recession to reduce costs and further improve efficiencies are benefiting Chamberlin's competitive position as the trading backdrop improves. As we have previously highlighted, in managing the downturn we retained production capacity and key capabilities. We are now winning business as engineering demand recovers both in the UK and globally.

In addition, with the platform for growth in place, we are also returning to our aim of acquiring complementary businesses, to which we can apply our criteria of "difficult things done well".

We have experienced recovery across almost all our activities and with continuing evidence of growth and our expectations of new orders we believe that the Group is likely to deliver pre-tax profits for the full year ahead of current market forecasts.

Tom Brown

Chairman

24 November 2010

CHAMBERLIN plc

 Summarised Consolidated Income Statement

for the six months ended 30 September 2010

* Prior periods have been restated to be consistent with the 6 months ended 30 September 2010 presentation (see note1)

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

for the six months ended 30 September 2010

Summarised Consolidated Balance Sheet

At 30 September 2010

 Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

for the six months ended 30 September 2010

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

for the six months ended 30 September 2010

Notes to the interim financial statements

1 General information and accounting policies

The interim condensed consolidated financial statements do not comprise the Group's statutory accounts as defined by section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. Statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2010 were approved by the board of directors on 10 June 2010 and were filed at Companies House. The auditors' report on those accounts was unqualified, did not contain an emphasis of matter paragraph and did not contain any statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis of preparation

The annual financial statements of the group are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union. The condensed set of financial statements included in this half-yearly financial report has been prepared in accordance with the AIM Rules issued by the London Stock Exchange.

Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies, based on IFRS, applied in preparing the Interim Financial Statements are consistent with the policies set out in the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2010, except for the achievement of hedge accounting criteria as stipulated by IAS 39 detailed below. No new standards or interpretations issued since 31 March 2010 have had a material impact on the accounting of the Group

Change of hedge accounting - IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement

On 1 April 2010 the Group adopted hedge accounting. Foreign currency forward contacts are being used to hedge the foreign currency risks on highly probable forecasted sales transactions. The fair value of forward currency contracts is calculated by reference to current forward exchange rates for contracts with similar maturity profiles. The proportion of the gain or loss on the hedging instrument that is determined as an effective hedge is recognised directly in equity through the statement of comprehensive income and the gain or loss on any ineffective component of a hedging instrument is recognised in profit and loss. Amounts initially recognised in equity are transferred to the income statement when the forecast hedged transaction occurs.

Hedge activities

At 30 September 2010 the Group held 12 foreign currency forward contracts designated as hedges of expected future sales to customers in Europe for which the Group has highly probable forecasted transactions.

Going concern

After making appropriate enquiries, the directors consider that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operation for the foreseeable future. In forming this view the directors have reviewed budgets and other financial information. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the accounts.

Presentation of the Consolidated Income Statement

The presentation of the Consolidated Income Statement for the period to 30 September 2009 has been restated and the 30 September 2010 Income Statement has been prepared on the same basis to be consistent with a change in presentation introduced in the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2010 to allocate income and expense between Underlying items which relate to the trading activities of the business and Non-underlying items which are either non-recurring or are valued using market derived data which is outside of management's control. Non-underlying items include business reorganisation costs, share based payments and net financing costs on pension obligations and in prior periods the movement in unrealised mark to market foreign currency gains and losses on monetary assets and liabilities and forward foreign currency contracts, net of realised losses on surplus foreign exchange contracts. Due to the nature of the share schemes, it is helpful to strip out the charge from underlying results

The Directors believe that this format sets out the performance of the Group more clearly.

2 Segmental analysis

For management purposes, the Group is organised into two operating divisions: Foundries and Engineering. The operating segments reporting format reflects the Group's management and internal reporting structures.

The Foundries segment is a supplier of iron castings, in raw or machined form, to a variety of industrial customers who incorporate the castings into their own products or carry out further machining or assembly operations on the castings before selling them on. The Engineering segment provides manufactured and imported products to distributors and end-users. The products fall into the categories of door hardware, hazardous area lighting and control gear, cable management and general ironmongery.

There are no transactions between business segments.

Group financing and income tax are managed on a group basis and are not allocated to operating segments.

3 Finance income and costs

4 Income tax expense

An effective rate of tax for the six months to 30 September 2010 of 53% (30 September 2009 12%) has been used in these interim statements.

The effective rate of tax is higher than the standard rate because of the impact of disallowable expenses. The 2009 effective rate of tax was lower than the standard because losses arising in the year could not be utilised and the deferred tax asset was not recognised.

On the 22 June 2010 the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a number of tax reforms. The key change to Corporation tax that will apply to the Group is the reduction in the main Corporation tax rate, from 28% to 27%, effective from 1 April 2011.

The reduction in the corporation tax rate to 27% was substantively enacted on the 21st July 2010. It is not anticipated that the subsequent reductions to 24%, once substantively enacted, will have a material effect on the company's future current or deferred tax charges.

5 Earnings per share

The calculation of earnings per share is based on the profit attributable to shareholders and the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue. In calculating the diluted earnings per share, adjustment has been made for the dilutive effect of outstanding share options. Underlying earnings per share, which excludes business reorganisation costs, net financing cost of pension obligation and share based compensation, less related tax thereon and, in 2009, mark to market foreign currency movements, as analysed below, has been disclosed as the Directors believe this allows a better assessment of the underlying trading performance of the Group.

Non-underlying operating items are detailed in note 7.

6 Pensions

The Group operates a defined benefit pension scheme and a number of defined contribution pension schemes on behalf of its employees. For defined contribution schemes, contributions paid in the period are charged to the income statement. For the defined benefit scheme, actuarial calculations are performed in accordance with IAS 19 in order to arrive at the amounts to be charged in the income statement and recognised in the statement of comprehensive income. The defined benefit scheme is closed to new entrants and future accrual.

Under IAS 19, the Company recognises all movements in the actuarial funding position of the scheme in each period. This is likely to lead to volatility in shareholders' equity from period to period.

The IAS 19 figures are based on a number of actuarial assumptions as set out below, which the actuaries have confirmed they consider appropriate. The projected unit credit actuarial cost method has been used in the actuarial calculations.

As a consequence of statutory changes recently introduced by the government, the inflation assumption has been changed from RPI to CPI in respect of deferred pension revaluation on the non-GMP element of scheme benefits.

The demographic assumptions used for 30 September 2010, were the same as used in 31 March 2010, 30 September 2009 and the last full actuarial valuation performed as at 1 April 2007, other than for life expectancy where the S1NA (YoB) MC table with a 1% underpin has been used.(Previously PA92 (YoB) MC table).

The defined benefit scheme funding has changed under IAS 19 as follows:

The increase in the net pension liability is mainly due to positive investment returns offset by a increase in the value of liabilities as a consequence of a reduction in the discount rate. In addition the change to CPI in respect of deferred benefits noted above has partially offset the increase in scheme liabilities.

7 Non-underlying items

Operating exceptional items in the six months to 30 September 2010 and which, in the opinion of the directors, do not form part of the underlying operating costs/(income) of the businesses, comprise:

Restructuring and severance costs relate to redundancies and other costs incurred in restructuring the business in response to the recession.

Inventory write down relates to the cost of stock disposal, at significant discount, on exit from a business stream within the Engineering Division.

8 Related party transactions

During the period a new phantom share option scheme has been introduced in respect of certain senior managers. Cash bonuses will be payable, subject to achieving certain targets, for growth in Total Shareholder Return ("TSR") over the period to 23 February 2013. The proportion of award achieved varies on a straight line basis from 25% to 100% for average TSR growth of between 23.85% and 50.66 % per annum. This is equivalent to achieving a share price, with dividends added back, of 100p to 180p. The payment earned falls due in three equal instalments in April 2013, April 2014 and April 2015. The exposure in respect of this scheme is included within the share based charge captured in these financial statements.