ISG.L Regulatory News (ISG)

30 Jun 2009 07:00



Interior Services Group PLC

("ISG" or "the group")

Pre Close Trading Statement

The Board of ISG is pleased to announce that trading for the year ended 30 June 2009 has remained in line with the Board's expectations.

The Board is pleased to note that the success of the group's diversification strategy has ensured that the decline anticipated in London fit out and refurbishment has been offset by stronger trading in our Retail and Regional businesses which has been driven by our frameworks with banks and food retailers and by public sector work.

The group's strategy remains to position itself towards more resilient regions and sectors and where a decline in activity is anticipated, to ensure the group's resource base remains in line.

As previously noted, some of our clients, particularly those operating across several countries, have become more cautious in the wake of Lehman's collapse. Consequently, there have been a few cancellations and some delay to certain projects particularly affecting our European operations. Elsewhere overseas, particularly in China, we are experiencing good levels of activity and continue to establish and position ourselves to win projects in growing markets of which Abu Dhabi is an excellent recent example. Since March 2009 we have started to see corporate clients becoming more confident and both enquiry levels and proposals intake have started to improve for our overseas activities.

At the interim stage we reported that the order book would reduce as the longer lead time UK fit out, new build and refurbishment projects in the UK are replaced with higher margin, negotiated work across our Retail business and in Europe and Asia. The current order book stands above £800m, of which £680m relates to the financial year ending 30 June 2010. ISG's balance sheet remains sound and we expect to finish the year with a strong cash position.

The preliminary results will be announced on 8 September 2009.

30 June 2009

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