Interim Management Statement

Morgan Crucible Co PLC 18 April 2008 The Morgan Crucible Company plc - Interim Management Statement The Morgan Crucible Company plc ('Morgan Crucible'), the advanced materials company, is holding its Annual General Meeting at 11.00am today, where the following comments will be made regarding current trading, financial performance and outlook for the financial year. This statement covers the period from 5th January 2008 to 17th April 2008, and constitutes Morgan Crucible's first Interim Management Statement as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. • The Group has continued to experience good trading conditions across all its divisions in the nine weeks since we reported our full year 2007 results in late February • The order book at the end of March continues to be healthy with year on year improvements in line with those reported in February • For the year as a whole we expect to deliver performance in line with guidance set out at the preliminary results in February • We completed the acquisition of the Technical Ceramics businesses, Certech and Carpenter Advanced Ceramics from Carpenter Technology Corporation for c$145million • A c£160 million pensioner buy-out transaction was completed in March, between the Trustees of our UK pension schemes and Lucida plc, an FSA regulated company. Commenting on the year to date performance and outlook for the Group, Mark Robertshaw, Chief Executive Officer said: 'The recently completed acquisition of the Carpenter businesses continues to move our end-market mix towards higher growth, higher margin, less economically cyclical markets. Furthermore, the buy-out of the £160m of UK pensioner liabilities significantly de-risks our balance sheet and further reinforces our already healthy credit position. I am pleased with the progress we have continued to make since the year end and in particular with the strength of our order books. We therefore remain confident that the business will make further progress in 2008'. Carbon The overall order book for Carbon is well up on last year with a particularly strong pipeline in armour both for our silicon carbide materials and for the NP Aerospace business in which we acquired an equity stake last year. Production constraints in our US armour business and the continuing 'lock out' situation in our India facility are expected to restrain growth and impact gross margin in the first half of 2008. However, the ongoing strength of our order pipeline in the US coupled with anticipated production changes coming on-stream in Q2 mean that we expect a stronger second half of the year. The traditional Carbon businesses of electrical and mechanical are trading in line with expectations. We are seeing strong growth in our high temperature insulating business, largely driven by the demand of the solar energy market. Technical Ceramics The Technical Ceramics business has enjoyed a good start to the year. The strong opening order book has delivered healthy sales for the year to date. This year on year revenue growth is particularly encouraging when we adjust for the end of life of a 'hard disk drive (HDD)' customer application which still had sales in Q1 2007. The main driver of our results has been the focus placed on winning new business combined with the continued strength of our medical and aerospace customers: the strength in these sectors has more than offset some softness in markets related to the building industry and telecoms. The aerospace and medical markets remain a key area of focus for the division. The acquisition of the Carpenter businesses was successfully completed at the end of March and takes the division further into the growing aerospace market. Insulating Ceramics The Thermal Ceramics business has seen good top line growth year to date against last year particularly in light of the strong project-based business in H1 2007. This growth is driven primarily by strong Asian sales with Latin America also trading well. The order book remains robust especially in chemical and processing (CPI) and energy end-markets for delivery into Asia and the Gulf Region. The roll-out of our High Temperature and Low Shot Superwool(R) products continues with sales of High Temperature Superwool(R) starting in North America from February of this year. We continue to convert our network of manufacturing facilities to Superwool production capability with the Japanese facility having been recently converted. Our newly redesigned and enhanced global R&D centre in Bromborough, UK is now close to completion and will be formally opened in the second quarter. Good trading conditions in the Molten Metal Systems business continued into the first quarter of 2008, with overall sales increasing in line with expectations. Whilst some of this increase was attributable to stock building by distributors, in advance of the planned transfer of UK manufacturing to our German and Indian plants, underlying business levels and order intake continued to exhibit underlying growth, with all regions contributing. Financial Position The balance sheet remains strong and there have been no significant changes in the financial position of the Group since that reported as at 4 January 2008, other than the acquisition noted above (funded through an increase in bank borrowings), and the pensioner buy-out transaction that was completed in March. Morgan Crucible made a one-off contribution to the schemes of c£4 million as part of this pensioner buy-out transaction. Outlook The Group continues to enjoy a healthy order book. Based on year to date trading and our healthy current order book, performance for the full year is anticipated to be in line with expectations and the Board remains confident about the outlook for the future. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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