Preliminary Announcement

Alumasc (ALU.L), the premium building and engineering products group which since January 2006 has been classified under Construction & Materials, announces a good result, ahead of expectations, in challenging conditions in the year to 30 June 2006.

Financial Highlights:

• Revenue from continuing activities increased by 16% to £132.7m, of which metal cost increases, which were passed on to customers in higher selling prices, accounted for growth of £12.9m or 11%. Exports increased to £37.2m from £21.4m.
• Trading profit from continuing operations of £9.0m was a strong performance. The H2 figure of £5.7m was up 17% and the final quarter was particularly strong.
• Pre-tax profit on continuing operations of £7.9m (2005: £7.7m) reflected continued growth in Building Products and a second half recovery in Engineering Products.
• Basic earnings per share on continuing operations were 15.5p (2005:14.6p) and 11.1p including discontinued activities (2005: 6.2p).
• Unchanged dividends per share of 9.3p are covered 1.7 times by earnings per share on continuing operations.

Commercial Highlights:

• Building Products had a fifth successive year of profit growth, increasing to £6.5m (including associate) (2005: £6.0m), 72% (2005: 65%) of the Group total, on revenue of £55.5m (2005: £48.7m), much of the growth deriving from exports. The Building Products companies expanded ahead of underlying market trends. They introduced new products, extended into new markets, and launched innovative and product-differentiating software aimed at saving specifiers time and money.
• Alumasc Precision Components’ trading profit of £2.0m (2005: £2.1m) on revenue of £28.6m (2005: £27.4m) represented an achievement in its first year without sales to its former largest customer, MG Rover. The year was a record one for new project start-ups (around 70% of its business has changed across the last two years), the H2 performance showed a significant improvement, and the final quarter began to show the benefits of some of the new projects coming on stream. Revenue reliance on automotive companies further reduced (to 6% of the Group total from 20% in 2003).
• Acquisitions are being sought, in particular in Building Products.

John McCall, Chairman, stated: “Within our businesses, there has been solid progress in the last year linked to the introduction of new products, investment in manufacturing, and the development of our markets. We are optimistic that this will continue in the current financial year.”
Paul Hooper, Chief Executive, added: “The Group’s strategy to move forward through building niche, highly customer-focussed businesses, supported by strong technical service and marketing expertise and featuring higher added-value, should serve it well in the future. The resilience shown in the past year in overcoming rising costs outside its control give confidence that the Group can continue to manage the various challenges and deliver further progress in the current year.”

Presentation:
Today, from 09:30am to 10:30am, a presentation to analysts and private client investment advisers will be held at the offices of KBC Peel Hunt, 4th Floor, 111 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1PH.