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1st March 2000

BBA GROUP PLC PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 1999

  • Sales on continuing operations up 22% to £1,422.7m (1998: £1,162.9m)
  • 7% underlying organic sales growth across the Group (1998: 5%)
  • Operating profit* on continuing operations up 21% to £203.9m (1998: £168.6m)
  • Profit before tax* up 11% to £183.5m (1998: £165.1m)
  • Basic earnings per share* up 11% to 28.9p (1998: 26.1p)
  • Dividends per share up 10% to 9.65p (1998: 8.8p)
  • Continued strong investment in the business with capital expenditure of £149m (1998: £110m)

* before exceptionals, goodwill amortisation and FID benefit

Commenting on the results, Roberto Quarta, Group Chief Executive, said:

"1999 has been an excellent year for BBA as our organic growth accelerated to 7 per cent and we continued to achieve double-digit earnings growth. We successfully integrated our previous acquisitions and maintained our substantial investment programme to ensure our three businesses stand out by offering a growing range of technologically advanced solutions and services to our customers."

"We are on the threshold of another exciting era where we are evolving from our traditional engineering base to offer a broad range of added-value services and systems solutions. With the brand name of BBA now in the worldwide marketplace and the potential for further acquisitions and joint ventures, we can look forward with confidence to a future of strong growth."

ENQUIRIES:

Roberto Quarta, Chief Executive, BBA Group PLC, 020 7842 4900
Roy McGlone, Finance Director
Susan Gilchrist/Nigel Prideaux, Brunswick, 020 7404 5959