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[January 2004]
Cookson Trading Update
In line with past practice, Cookson Group PLC, the international materials technology company, issued an update on 21 January 2004 on trading for the fourth quarter of 2003 and on the unaudited results for the year as a whole.
Operating profit for the Group's continuing operations for the year was approximately £80 million. After accounting for interest paid and for losses of some £17 million incurred by businesses disposed of in 2003, Group profit before tax was approximately £31 million in 2003, which compares with £4 million in 2002.
Profit before tax for the second half of 2003 of some £25 million compares with £6 million in the first half, and with £16 million in the second half of 2002. Exchange rate translation differences did not have a material impact on the Group's reported operating profit.
Cash flow was described as 'robust' in the fourth quarter of 2003. This, together with a positive exchange rate impact on dollar denominated borrowings and strong cash flow in the first half, resulted in the Group's net borrowings decreasing from £428 million in 2002 to some £360 million at the end of 2003. The Group's audited preliminary results for 2003 will be announced on 24 February 2004.
In its quarterly review of divisional activities, Cookson said that steel production in Q4 2003 in the Ceramics division's largest markets - the EU and the USA - had been virtually unchanged over 2002. With 70% of the Ceramics division's activities linked to steel production, sales in Q4 were marginally higher than the previous year.
Operating profit for the year was some 10% higher than in 2002 although, as expected, profits for Q4 2003 were lower than for Q4 2002, which had benefitted from a particularly strong performance from the division's Glass sector.
In December, it was announced, the Ceramics division had disposed of its loss-making insulating firebrick manufacturing business in France for a nominal amount; this business incurred a loss of approximately £1 million in 2003 and had a net asset value, including goodwill, of £15 million.
ENDS