HAMP.L Regulatory News (HAMP)

29 Aug 2006 14:30

Hampson Industries PLC29 August 2006 29 August 2006 Hampson Industries PLC Annual General Meeting Statement At the Annual General Meeting of Hampson Industries PLC, the aerospace andprecision engineering group, held in Brierley Hill today, Chairman Tony Gilroymade the following statement on current trading: "In my statement in the 2006 annual report I said that our carefully targetedinvestments and acquisition of niche businesses would build a strong platformfor continuing growth. We are pleased with the very successful integration ofthese world-class businesses that have added new capabilities and technology andconsiderably strengthened our position in aerospace. "In this context, I am pleased to report that the Group has made a solid startto the current financial year and we remain on track to deliver another year ofcontinuing growth. "As anticipated, our larger UK aerospace components and structures facilitiesare contributing significantly improved underlying results as development workon new programmes comes to an end and other steps we have taken start to yieldpositive results. We have terminated our involvement on one such programme, andwe are now seeking to resolve issues arising from the termination, througharbitration if necessary. "The revolutionary new Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet, in respect of which Hampsonis contracted to supply the complete tail assembly and a number offlight-critical composite structures, received provisional type certificationfrom the FAA in July 2006. Final certification is expected very shortly. TheEclipse 500 order book remains strong at over 2,400 aircraft to date, but thedelayed timing will reduce volume requirement in this current financial year.This is purely a timing issue and we expect these volumes to be recovered infuture periods. "Work on our new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in India has nowbeen completed successfully. The first three production cells are nowcommissioned and are fully operational. We expect them to contribute to revenuein a modest way in this financial year and positively to earnings next year. "At Group level, we expect growth to be concentrated strongly in the second halfof the current financial year. Continued good visibility of the second halfsupports this expectation and is due to several factors, including the build upof deliveries on new contracts such as Eclipse, the start-up of our new Indianplant in Bangalore and the anticipated delivery timing to our customers ofseveral large, high-value tools for composite aero structures. We are alsoconfident of winning further orders in our US-based Composites & Transparenciesdivision over the next quarter, some of which would be delivered to ourcustomers in the second half. As with all UK companies with significant NorthAmerican operations, the sterling value of our results will inevitably beinfluenced to a degree by exchange rate variations over the year. "Overall, we are pleased to report that in general the business environmentacross our core markets remains positive and we look forward to another year ofvery good progress." Ends Further information: Kim Ward, Chief Executive +44 (0)1384 472941 Howard Kimberley, Finance Director +44 (0)1384 472946 Jonathan Gollins/Marylene Guernier, M:Delta +44 (0)20 7153 1268www.hampsongroup.com Notes to Editors Hampson Industries PLC is a rapidly growing international group serving the global aerospace, precision automotive and specialist engineering markets, with approximately 1,600 employees and operations in the UK, the USA and India. In December 2003, the group announced a record contract to manufacture and assemble the complete empennage (tail structure) for the revolutionary new Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet. In December 2004, Hampson acquired Texas, USA-based Texstars Inc, a leading manufacturer of military aircraft transparencies and composite products for aerospace and defense applications. In December 2005, the group acquired California, USA-based Coast Composites Inc, a leading manufacturer of large, critical tolerance tooling for aero structural components and Lamsco West Inc, a niche manufacturer of laminated shims and specialist components for airframe construction. On 9 March 2006 Hampson was promoted to the FTSE SmallCap Index from the FTSE Fledgling.http://www.hampsongroup.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange