ECM.L Regulatory News (ECM)

27 Sep 2006 07:01

Electrocomponents PLC27 September 2006 Embargoed until 7.00am 27 September 2006 Electrocomponents plc - Trading Update Electrocomponents plc, the major international high-service distributor ofelectronic, electrical and industrial supplies, is today giving a trading updateahead of its results for the 6 months ended 30 September 2006. Revenue during this half year has grown at around 9% (adjusted for exchangerates and trading days). Within this International sales have grown at around15% and UK sales have grown at around 1%. Gross margin has declined slightly since the second half of the last financialyear but the majority of this impact is caused by the change in geographic mixprincipally as a result of the strong growth of our North American business. Group profit before tax and reorganisation costs for the 6 months ending 30September 2006 is expected to be in line with last year despite there beingfewer trading days, due largely to the different timing of Easter. Adjustingfor this impact, estimated at £4m, the profit growth in the period is expectedto be in excess of 10%. The roll out of the Enterprise Business System to the rest of Europe is onschedule with the roll out expected to be largely complete by the end of thisfinancial year. The full results for the six months will be announced on 6 November 2006. There will be a telephone conference call today at 09.00am for analysts andinvestors. Dial-in instructions are set out below. Enquiries: Ian Mason Group Chief Executive 01865 204000Simon Boddie Group Finance Director 01865 204000Diana Soltmann Flagship Consulting 020 7886 8440 Details of telephone dial in instructions: Date: 27 September 2006UK Time: 08:50am for 09:00am UK Local Call Dial-In: 0845 144 0016UK Free Call Dial In: 0800 953 0937Europe & International Dial-In: +44 (0) 1452 569 103Canada Toll Free Dial In: 1800 795 6202USA Toll Free Dial-In: 1866 224 2914Quote Reference Number: 4631637Chairman: Ian Mason Electrocomponents plc Safe Harbour Statement: This announcement contains certain statements, statistics and projections thatare or may be forward-looking. The accuracy and completeness of all suchstatements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the futurefinancial position, strategy, projected costs, plans and objectives for themanagement of future operations of Electrocomponents plc and its subsidiaries isnot warranted or guaranteed. These statements typically contain words such as "intends", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates" and words of similar import. Bytheir nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty becausethey relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.Although Electrocomponents plc believes that the expectations reflected in suchstatements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations willprove to be correct. There are a number of factors, many of which are beyond thecontrol of the Electrocomponents plc, which could cause actual results anddevelopments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange