Ricardo sees trading in line with expectations
AUTOMOTIVE and engineering consultancy Ricardo has said trading performance for its continued operations to the end of June was in line with management expectations.
The company, which has a large technical development centre in Leamington Spa, said that as part of an ongoing programme to improve business efficiency it would continue to keep costs down wherever it could so it was in a position to capitalise on the improvement in the automotive sector.
“We continue to manage the business tightly and implement cost savings wherever possible,” it said in a trading update.
As a result of the ongoing improvement in the automotive industry, the firm said it expected a better fourth quarter.
It said order levels rose to £101m as of June 30. This compares with a figure of £87m for the end of April.
The company also announced the €2m sell-off of its non-core German exhaust manufacturing business.
Ricardo said the deal would see the transfer of the business, employees, plant and equipment and inventories to J Eberspächer & Co.
Ricardo will retain responsibility for trading until the completion of the deal and for the recovery of receivables and payment of accounts due 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 €2.8m. This will be shown in the financial statements for the year ended June 20, 2010, which are due to be published on September 28.
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