German Exhaust business sale

RNS Number : 0540Q

Ricardo PLC

28 July 2010

 



28 July 2010

Ricardo plc

German Exhaust business sale and Trading Update

Ricardo plc ('Ricardo' or 'the Company') - a market leading engineering and automotive consultancy, announces that it has signed an agreement for the planned sale of its non core German exhaust manufacturing business to J. Eberspächer GmbH & Co. KG.

The sale agreement includes the transfer of the business, employees, plant and equipment and inventories for cash consideration of €2.0 million. Ricardo retains responsibility for trading until completion and for the recovery of receivables and payment of accounts payable at the completion date.  

The disposal is subject to regulatory approval, which is expected to be obtained shortly and will result in a write-off of assets of an estimated €2.8 million in the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2010.

Trading performance for continued operations to the end of June was in line with management expectations. As part of ongoing actions to improve business efficiency, we continue to manage the business tightly and implement cost savings wherever possible.

The automotive industry is recovering and as a result, improved fourth quarter order intake levels gave rise to a strong closing order book of £101 million at the 30th June 2010, compared to £87 million at the end of April 2010.

Ricardo will announce its preliminary results for the twelve month period ending 30 June 2010 on 28 September 2010.

Further enquiries:

Ricardo plc
Dave Shemmans, Chief Executive	Tel:	01273 455611
Paula Bell, Group Finance Director
Website: www.ricardo.com
Kreab Gavin Anderson	Tel:	0207 074 1800
Fergus Wylie
Michael Turner
Matthew O'Leary

 

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