Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 6482R

Clarkson PLC

08 November 2011

 



8 November 2011

CLARKSON PLC

("Clarksons")

Interim Management Statement

Clarksons, the world's leading shipping services group, today announces its Interim Management Statement (published in accordance with the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules,) for the period from 1 July 2011 to 7 November 2011 ("the period").

Trading  

In an uncertain economic environment the strength of Clarksons' teams, breadth of service offer and geographical reach continues to position the Group well. Consequently trading in the second half of the year has continued in line with the Board's expectations.

Broking 

Freight rates across the majority of shipping markets remained under pressure during the period. Against this backdrop we have continued to see a flight to quality and the strength of our teams and their ability to offer excellent regional service whilst leveraging the benefits of our international network, has enabled us to maintain and in many areas build market share. We have seen particularly good performances in Specialised Products, Gas and Offshore.

Financial

Despite difficult trading conditions across the capital markets, our investment services team has made good progress generating revenue from the completion of a large acquisition, a bond offering and several debt financings during the course of the year. The team continues to work on a number of mandates and are well positioned to take advantage as economic conditions and sentiment improve.

Whilst overall futures broking market volumes remain down for the period, Clarkson Securities has continued to grow market share and has seen an improvement in transaction volumes. 

Support

Our Port and Agency business has performed well over the period and we have opened a new office in the North East of England covering the ports of Tyne, Tees and Hartlepool, expanding our geographical reach and broadening our service offer to customers.

Research

Clarksons' market leading research division has continued to show good growth with a particularly strong performance from digital sales of our research products.

Litigation

As announced on 4 November 2011, an amount of £2m relating to costs awarded was credited to Clarksons' profits following the Court of Appeal's decision to deny Mr Nikitin leave to appeal in the cases between him and H Clarkson & Company Limited.

Outlook

The Group has delivered a robust performance for the year to date against a backdrop of lower freight rates in a number of shipping markets and exchange rate pressure. We believe our 'Best in Class' service delivery, combined with our long established and yet still expanding global position is fundamental to this performance.

The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain and the rate of recovery difficult to predict. This continues to manifest itself in difficult trading conditions in some of our markets with prevalence towards spot market business.

Nevertheless, our focussed business model and strong balance sheet position us well and provide flexibility to assess opportunities. The board remains confident the Group's performance for the full year will be in-line with expectations.

Enquiries:
Clarkson PLC: Andi Case, Chief Executive Jeff Woyda, Finance Director		020 7334 0000
Hudson Sandler: Andrew Leach / Kate Hough		020 7796 4133

 

END

 

 

IMSBRBRTMBJMBIB