Hill & Smith Regulatory News (HILS)

12 May 2006 07:00

Hill & Smith Hldgs PLC12 May 2006 At the Annual General Meeting of Hill & Smith Holdings PLC to be held latertoday the Chairman, David Winterbottom, will make the following statement toshareholders: "I said in the Group's preliminary announcement in early March that the newfinancial year had started in line with our expectations and that the Board washopeful of another good performance in 2006. Trading since then has continued tobe satisfactory and our expectations of the full year outcome remain unchanged. When we published the preliminary announcement, the Group had only very recentlycompleted the acquisition of the Counters & Accessories traffic data recordingbusiness. Since its acquisition, Counters & Accessories has been performing inaccordance with our targets, and progress has been made with combining this withour existing Techspan operation. We continue to view the future for thesecombined businesses as very positive and look to grow, organically and throughselective acquisition, our share of this market. As shareholders are aware, the Group acquired a 33% shareholding in ZinkinventGmbH during 2005 with a view to negotiating the acquisition of the remaining67%. The Zinkinvent businesses continue to trade in line with our expectations,but the acquisition process is proving more difficult and is takingsignificantly longer than originally anticipated. As a result, the period ofexclusivity which we originally negotiated has now expired. However, the Boardis continuing to actively progress discussions with a view to reaching anagreement which we can recommend to our shareholders. We announced in February that Hill & Smith was in discussion with Metnor Groupfor the acquisition of its Metnor Galvanizing business, subject to priorregulatory approval. Since then submissions have been made to the Office of FairTrading and their decision on whether any competition issues would arise fromthis acquisition is anticipated within the next 14 days. On a personal note, I have decided that 2006 will be my last full year asnon-executive Chairman of Hill & Smith and I intend to retire at the conclusionof the next Annual General Meeting in May 2007. I am pleased to be able toannounce that David Grove has agreed to succeed me as Chairman, but in anexecutive capacity, at which time he will relinquish his current role as GroupChief Executive. In anticipation of these changes the Board expects to be in aposition to announce the appointment of a new Chief Executive in the autumn." Further information:Hill & Smith Holdings PLCDavid Grove, Group Chief Executive0121 704 743007973 325667 Quantum Freshwater UKEdward Carter0121 633 777507770 378097 Anna McNeil0121 633 7775 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange