Victoria Regulatory News (VCP)

2 Feb 2009 10:51



Issued by Citigate Dewe Rogerson Ltd, Birmingham

Date: Monday, 2 February 2009

Victoria PLC

Interim Management Statement and Trading Update

Victoria PLC ('Group' or 'Victoria' or 'Company') publishes its Interim Management Statement covering the period October to December 2008 to the date of this announcement as required by the UK Listing Authority Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

As reported at the Half-Year announcement, results for the first half of the current financial year proved resilient, but concerns about the rapidly deteriorating Global economy made it difficult to predict the likely outturn for the remainder of the year.

As the Group entered its third quarter, the impact of worsening global economic conditions began to severely hamper progress in all its markets. The resulting collapse of consumer confidence has caused a significant decline in activity and this has impacted the Group's overall performance in terms of both revenues and profitability.

Group revenues were down 10.4% on a like-for-like basis for the quarter against the corresponding period in 2007. Revenues declined 18.7% in the UK, 7.2% in Australia, and 28% in Ireland, in local currency terms.

The Group has continued to grow its market share despite the worsening market conditions and to invest in the business for the future, making good progress in the identified new market sectors, and all the operating businesses remain profitable.

There have been no material events or transactions during the third quarter and the financial position remains strong.

Prospects

The Group anticipates that the trading environment will remain extremely difficult, principally due to the weakening sentiment of the consumer in relation to both employment opportunities and the substantially weaker housing markets in all regions.

Against this backdrop and, given that visibility has become even tougher to predict, this deterioration in the marketplace has clearly impacted the Group's overall performance for the year as a whole. Consequently, the Board anticipates that the results for the full year are likely to be significantly below current market expectations.

The Board remains confident that the Group has a sound and solid business model from which it can build upon once confidence returns to its markets both in the UK and across the globe.

Worcester Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire DY10 1JR England

Telephone: 01562 749300 Fax: 01562 749649

Registered in England No. 282204