Havelock Europa Regulatory News (HVE)

Havelock Europa PLC

("Havelock" or the "Group")

Trading Update

Havelock Europa, (AIM:HVE.L), the retail and educational interiors group, today provides an update on trading ahead of its final results for the year to 31 December 2013. The Board expects trading for the year to 31 December 2013 to have been in line with its expectations.

The Group has made good progress in line with its strategy of widening its customer base with projects being completed for the first time for a major UK supermarket. This is a sector of the market which the Group has been actively pursuing and it represents an important step in further expanding its coverage of the retail market. Encouragingly there is an increase in tender activity in both the UK and overseas and the benefits of additional business should be reflected in order intake during 2014.

In the educational sector order intake remained subdued and as a result revenue from this sector is likely to fall in 2014. However recent announcements of programmes and discussions with principal building contractor customers give confidence of increased orders in coming months leading to increased revenue in the future. In addition, the Group is achieving success in securing orders for student accommodation. The impact of these activities will occur in 2015 and therefore the longer term outlook for the educational sector is encouraging and it will continue to be a major part of the Group's activity.

The sale of surplus property which was announced in November 2013 together with stringent control of working capital resulted in Group net debt falling below £0.5m at the financial year end. This was achieved alongside capital investment which exceeded £1m in the year. Substantial reduction in debt has been a major part of the Group's strategy over recent years and having succeeded, the Group can now focus entirely on developing and growing its core business.

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