Chamberlin Plc Regulatory News (CMH)

29 September 2020

Chamberlin plc

("Chamberlin" or the "Company")

Extension of Deadline for Publication of Audited Accounts and Trading Update

Chamberlin plc (AIM: CMH.L), the specialist castings and engineering group, is pleased to provide the following update further to the announcement on 19 June 2020. 

2020 Accounts

Following consultation with the Company's advisers, the Board has concluded that, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will require more time to complete the audit process in respect of its accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020. Consequently, and given recent regulatory guidance in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Group has applied for, and has been granted by AIM Regulation, a two month extension to the timeline for publishing its audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020 ("2020 Accounts"), which are now expected to be published in late October 2020. The Company confirms that it has been granted an extension by Companies House to file its 2020 Accounts by 31 December 2020 from the previous deadline of 30 September 2020.

Current Trading

Sales for the year to 31 March 2020 are expected to be £26.1 million (unaudited) (31 March 2019: £33.0 million). This is expected to result in a loss before tax for the year of £2.3 million (unaudited) (31 March 2019: loss before tax £5.0 million). Non-underlying costs of £0.9m contributed to the loss, mainly restructuring costs. Net debt at 31 March 2020 is expected to be £4.6m (unaudited) (31 March 2019: £5.4 million). 

Sales for the six months to 30 September 2020 are expected to be £11.0 million (unaudited) (2019: £12.8 million). This is expected to result in a loss before tax for the period of £0.6 million (unaudited) (2019: loss before tax £1.8 million). Non-underlying costs, mainly restructuring, of £0.2m (2019: £0.7 million) contributed to the loss as well as the impact of COVID-19 in April. 

The health and safety of Chamberlin's employees has been, and remains, paramount. All operations are performed in line with relevant government guidelines and industry best practice specific to COVID-19 precautions. To date there have been no reported instances of any Chamberlin employee contracting COVID-19. Most employees are now working normally with only a small number remaining on furlough.

Production levels at the Walsall factory are now broadly in line with activity seen immediately prior to the impact from COVID-19 and output levels at the Machine Shop are now also returning to the levels of pre COVID-19.

Russell Ductile, the Company's Scunthorpe foundry operation, which remained open throughout the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, continues to operate at or near full production levels in response to growing customer demand. 

Petrel, Chamberlin's specialist lighting business is operating at around 60% of normal sales volumes.

Despite current levels of activity in the Walsall foundry being relatively high, the outlook for a number of the key markets, particularly across the automotive sector, remains uncertain and the Board continues to believe that it is still too early to make any reasonable estimate of the financial impact on the Group during the current year and beyond. As previously reported, the Board has taken significant steps to reduce costs in line with the expected reduction in demand.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

Enquiries