ICI has “solid” second quarter, expects satisfactory progress
ICI has “solid” second quarter, expects satisfactory progress
ICI Chief Executive John McAdam has reported the company has maintained its positive start to 2005 with a solid second quarter. “The business made good progress, raising prices to recover higher raw material costs and, despite generally weaker economic conditions compared with Q2 2004, trading profit and profit before tax were in line with last year,” said McAdam.
“Progress in Asia remained encouraging, Quest's performance improved further, and the benefits from restructuring programs are now expected to exceed our original targets. The outlook for the second half of the year remains as it was at the end of Q1. Whilst we experienced some improvement in trading conditions towards the end of the quarter, European markets remained generally subdued. Nevertheless, provided there is no further deterioration in the overall market conditions, we continue to expect to make satisfactory progress in 2005,”McAdam added.
ICI is one of the world's major specialty products and paints businesses. The Group's four principal activities are national starch, quest, uniqema and ICI paints, which together account for more than 90 percent of ICI's sales. Today,around a quarter of ICI's sales are made in Asia Pacific and 40 percent in the Americas with less than 12 percent now made in the UK.
