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HILS Hill & Smith Plc

1,894.00
-22.00 (-1.15%)
Last Updated: 11:24:23
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Hill & Smith Plc LSE:HILS London Ordinary Share GB0004270301 ORD 25P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  -22.00 -1.15% 1,894.00 1,896.00 1,904.00 1,914.00 1,894.00 1,904.00 23,128 11:24:23
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Fabricated Structural Metal 829.8M 68.8M 0.8582 22.26 1.53B

Hill & Smith PLC 2022 Annual Report and Notice of 2023 AGM (9858V)

12/04/2023 11:02am

UK Regulatory


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TIDMHILS

RNS Number : 9858V

Hill & Smith PLC

12 April 2023

Hill & Smith PLC (the 'Company')

2022 Annual Report and Notice of 2023 Annual General Meeting ('AGM')

Hill & Smith PLC has posted, or otherwise notified as being available on its website (www.hsgroup.com), the Notice of its 2023 AGM. The 2022 Annual Report was posted to shareholders, or otherwise notified as being made available on its website on 11 April 2023.

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.1 a copy of each of these documents has been uploaded to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for viewing shortly.

A hard copy of the 2022 Annual Report can be obtained upon request to the Group Company Secretary, Hill & Smith PLC, Westhaven House, Arleston Way, Shirley, Solihull B90 4LH.

The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022 have been approved by the Board and will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's AGM.

Compliance with Disclosure and Transparency Rule 6.3.5 ('DTR 6.3.5') - Extracts from the 2022 Annual Report

The information below, headed as Appendix A, B and C, and which is extracted from the 2022 Annual Report, is included solely for the purpose of complying with DTR 6.3.5 and the requirements it imposes on how to make public Annual Financial Reports. It should be read in conjunction with the Company's Preliminary Announcement issued on 8 March 2023 (available at www.hsgroup.com). Together these constitute the material required by DTR 6.3.5 to be communicated to the media in unedited full text through a Regulatory Information Service. This material is not a substitute for reading the full 2022 Annual Report. All page numbers and cross-references in the extracted information below refer to page numbers in the 2022 Annual Report.

Appendix A - Principal Risks and Uncertainties

 
 Risk: Reduction in public infrastructure spending 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Our existing entity portfolio contains diverse 
                    Demand for sustainable                   products, markets and territories and we will 
                    infrastructure and transport is          continue with this approach. 
                    underpinned by Government 
                    spending 
                    plans. Changes to these plans       *    Market and product development initiatives. 
                    could have a detrimental impact 
                    on Group revenues. 
                                                        *    Co-operation between Group businesses, leveraging the 
                    The Infrastructure Investment            Group's size/international footprint and exploiting 
                    and Jobs Act ('IIJA'), enacted           synergies. 
                    into law in November 2021, 
                    confirmed 
                    a substantial increase in US        *    Exposure to the benefits from longer term 
                    federal government spending              infrastructure investment programmes. 
                    across a range of 
                    infrastructure 
                    areas and is likely to benefit 
                    demand for the Group's products 
                    and services in the US. Despite 
                    the current macro-economic 
                    uncertainty and recent delays 
                    in strategic road network 
                    projects, 
                    we are confident the UK 
                    Government are committed to the 
                    Road Investment Strategy, 
                    presenting 
                    future opportunity for our UK 
                    roads businesses. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Changes in global outlook and geopolitical environment 
 Trend              Description and potential           Mitigation 
  Slightly higher   impact                                *    The Group has a diverse portfolio of operating 
                    The Group operates in a range              companies with exposure to a range of markets and 
                    of end-user markets around the             geographies, limiting exposure to any one country or 
                    world and may be affected by               market sector. 
                    political, economic or 
                    regulatory developments in any 
                    of these countries.                   *    Current and future financial performance is 
                                                               continuously monitored, facilitating rapid response 
                    Material adverse changes in the            to changes in market conditions. 
                    political and economic 
                    environments in the countries 
                    in which                              *    In line with our entrepreneurial model, our decisions 
                    we operate, have the potential             are made close to our markets and our businesses are 
                    to put at risk our ability to              agile and responsive to changes in their competitive 
                    execute our strategy.                      landscape. 
 
                    As a result of continued global 
                    macro-economic uncertainty and        *    Co-operation between Group businesses, leveraging the 
                    the threat of recession, an                Group's size/international footprint and exploiting 
                    increase in the risk has been              synergies. 
                    recognised. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Increase in competitive pressure 
 Trend             Description and potential impact         Mitigation 
  No change        Increased volatility,                     *    Holding leading positions in niche markets of 
                   uncertainty and slowdown in our                sustainable infrastructure and transport safety with 
                   markets could result in                        high barriers to entry. 
                   increased prices 
                   and the emergence of new 
                   technologies, leading to a loss           *    In line with our entrepreneurial model, our decision 
                   of customers and/or pricing              s 
                   pressure                                       are made close to our markets and our businesses are 
                   and consequently a loss of sales               agile and responsive to changes in their competitive 
                   and reduced profits.                           landscape. 
 
 
                                                             *    Our operating companies aim to provide superior 
                                                                  products and high service levels to customers, whils 
                                                            t 
                                                                  aiming to ensure there is no dependency on any one 
                                                                  customer. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Product failure 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Products tested, approved and accredited by 
                    The Group operates in                    regulatory bodies. 
                    infrastructure markets where it 
                    is critical that its products 
                    meet customer                       *    Quality control protocols fully implemented and 
                    and legislative requirements             continuously monitored. 
                    and where the consequences of 
                    product failure are potentially 
                    significant.                        *    Contractual controls in place to minimise economic 
                                                             impacts. 
                    Product failure arising from 
                    component defects or warranty 
                    issues may require remediation      *    Insurance cover maintained globally with insurance 
                    including the replacement of             partners. 
                    defective components or 
                    complete products, resulting in 
                    direct                              *    Litigation supported/managed by external legal 
                    financial costs to the Group             specialists. 
                    and/or wider reputational risk. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Contractual failure 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Thematic Internal Audit review completed across the 
                    The Group delivers its                   Group during 2021 with recommendations implemented 
                    commitments to its customers             during 2022. 
                    through a variety of 
                    contractual arrangements 
                    of both a short and medium term     *    Group material contract review process ensures 
                    nature.                                  specialist central oversight of key contractual 
                                                             arrangements. 
                    Weaknesses in the contract 
                    tendering process, 
                    inappropriate pricing,              *    Contracts training for key staff. 
                    misalignment of contract 
                    terms, ineffective contract 
                    management or failure to comply     *    Dedicated quantity surveyors and contract managers in 
                    with contractual conditions              operating companies to control contracts and mitigate 
                    could                                    risk. 
                    result in loss of revenues, 
                    pressure on operating margins 
                    and wider reputational damage       *    Litigation supported/managed by external legal 
                    to                                       specialists. 
                    the Group. 
 
                                                        *    Insurance cover maintained globally with insurance 
                                                             partners. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Supply chain failure 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Supply chain resilience has been a focus of the Risk 
                    The Group's businesses depend            Committee during 2022 with ongoing monitoring of 
                    on the availability and timely           operating companies' ability to respond to the 
                    delivery of raw materials and            continued challenges. 
                    components, which could be 
                    affected by disruption in its 
                    supply chain. Supply chain          *    Group wide thematic Internal Audit review of Supply 
                    failures                                 Chain completed during 2022 with recommendations to 
                    because of performance, cost             be implemented during 2023. 
                    inflation, quality and/or 
                    insolvency may have an adverse 
                    impact                              *    Group procurement standards, including robust due 
                    on the Group's production                diligence of supply chain partners and the 
                    capacity and lead to an                  requirement for dual sourcing where available. 
                    inability to meet customer 
                    requirements, 
                    resulting in a reduction in         *    Regular interaction and assessment of performance/ 
                    revenues, potential loss of              financial status of key suppliers. 
                    market share and possible 
                    reputational 
                    damage.                             *    Group oversight of material procurement contracts 
                                                             ensuring robust contractual protections. 
                    Global warming could place 
                    further stress on our supply 
                    chain, with extreme weather         *    Goods inwards and stock management processes in place 
                    events                                   to reduce the likelihood of defects or a shortage of 
                    impacting supply becoming more           raw materials. 
                    likely and chronic changes to 
                    heat/ rainfall averages 
                    potentially                         *    Contingency plans in place throughout the supply 
                    impacting where we source                chain, such as purchasing additional stock of key raw 
                    certain materials. Climate               materials and securing additional supply chain 
                    change transition costs could            capacity. 
                    also inflate 
                    the price of the goods we 
                    purchase. 
 
                    During the year, our operating 
                    companies continued to take 
                    appropriate action to manage 
                    supply 
                    chain headwinds. Actions taken 
                    included implementing price 
                    increases to offset significant 
                    input cost inflation, securing 
                    supply of raw materials and 
                    ensuring the continuity of 
                    operations 
                    with a backdrop of labour 
                    shortages in certain 
                    businesses. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: IT systems failure 
 Trend              Description and potential           Mitigation 
  Slightly higher   impact                                *    The Board maintains a watching brief on IT and cyber 
                    The Group relies on the                    risk, and has overseen significant investment across 
                    information technology systems             the Group to enhance IT security controls and 
                    used in the daily operations of            maturity covering areas such as identity management, 
                    its                                        IT asset management, backup, endpoint protection, 
                    operating companies. A failure             incident response and vulnerability management. 
                    or impairment of those systems 
                    or any inability to effectively 
                    implement new systems could           *    Wholesale network security improvements planned for 
                    cause a loss of business and/or            2023. 
                    damage to the reputation of the 
                    Group, together with 
                    significant remedial costs.           *    IT controls manual setting out a robust set of 
                                                               information security controls covering basic cyber 
                    Poor security controls and                 hygiene, system back-up procedures and hardware/ 
                    procedures could lead to our               software protection. Reviews of IT controls 
                    operating companies being                  compliance were completed by Internal Audit during 
                    susceptible                                2022, with action plans agreed and monitored. 
                    to cyberattack, potentially 
                    resulting in significant IT 
                    failure and associated                *    Quarterly updates established to brief operating 
                    disruption.                                company leadership teams on their responsibilities 
                                                               relating to IT management and information security. 
                    During the year the global 
                    cyber threat has continued to 
                    evolve, with increasing numbers       *    Segregated business processing systems within each 
                    of                                         operating company means that any disruption due to 
                    organised criminal groups                  illegal external activity is unlikely to jeopardise 
                    undertaking increasingly                   the Group as a whole. 
                    sophisticated ransomware and 
                    other cyber 
                    attacks. As a result of the 
                    conflict in Ukraine the UK's 
                    National Cyber Security Centre 
                    ('NCSC') 
                    has warned of heightened cyber 
                    risk across UK, US and European 
                    businesses. 
 
                    While there has been a marked 
                    enhancement of the Group's IT 
                    security controls during 2022, 
                    the Board consider the risk to 
                    be heightened due to the 
                    increasing sophistication and 
                    frequency 
                    of cyber threats across the 
                    world. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Portfolio management 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    All potential acquisitions are tightly evaluated to 
                    The Group's growth strategies            ensure they fit within our purpose and core strategic 
                    include the acquisition of               goals. 
                    businesses around the world 
                    that 
                    complement or supplement its        *    Due diligence protocols deployed in relation to 
                    existing activities. Failure to          assessment of target businesses, including financial, 
                    execute an effective                     commercial, and legal etc. 
                    acquisition 
                    and integration programme would 
                    have a significant impact on        *    Board approval required for Group acquisitions, in 
                    the Group's ability to generate          line with the Group Board's Schedule of Matters 
                    sustainable profitable growth            Reserved. 
                    for shareholders. 
 
                                                        *    Contractual protections and assurances sought from 
                                                             sellers to mitigate subsequent identification of 
                                                             risks. 
 
 
                                                        *    Post-acquisition integration plans established for 
                                                             all acquisitions with regular performance monitoring 
                                                             and reporting to the Board. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Lack of investment in product development and innovation 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Group wide Innovation Framework launched during 2021 
                    The Group operates in global             to encourage and stimulate more innovation across the 
                    infrastructure markets where             Group. Workshops were run during 2022 to foster 
                    continuous innovation is                 innovation and share best practice and these will 
                    integral                                 continue into 2023. 
                    to the Group's product offering 
                    and where a failure to innovate 
                    could result in product             *    Entrepreneurial culture fostered through a 
                    obsolescence,                            decentralised management structure, ensuring that 
                    the entry of new competitors             Group businesses are agile and responsive to changes 
                    and/or loss of market share.             in their competitive environments. 
                    The development of new products 
                    and technologies carries risk 
                    including the failure to            *    Acquisitions add innovate products and technology to 
                    develop a commercially viable            our portfolio. 
                    offering 
                    within an acceptable timeframe. 
                                                        *    Executive Board approval of product development 
                                                             proposals within the Group's capital spend approval 
                                                             policies. 
 
 
                                                        *    Active Intellectual Property management within 
                                                             individual operating companies overseen by Group. 
 
 
                                                        *    Dedicated quality compliance resources in place 
                                                             across operating companies, ensuring responsiveness 
                                                             to regulator and/or customer approval requirements. 
 
 
                                                        *    Board monitoring of emerging risks alongside external 
                                                             specialist support, where both the risks identified 
                                                             and the potential opportunities arising are 
                                                             considered. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Talent, development, diversity, recruitment and retention of key employees 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  Slightly lower    impact                              *    Two of our ESG focus areas (Talent development and 
                    The changing nature of the               engagement & Diversity, and inclusion) directly 
                    demographics from which we               address the risk, with improvement initiatives and 
                    source our employees and the             metrics overseen by the ESG Committee. 
                    ways in 
                    which they like to work can 
                    make it difficult to attract        *    Refreshed People Strategy with a greater focus on 
                    and retain both skilled and              internal talent. 
                    unskilled 
                    labour. We need to ensure 
                    effective recruitment channels      *    Group Head of Reward and Group Head of Talent roles 
                    and make the necessary                   recruited during 2022. 
                    investment 
                    to develop and retain high 
                    quality individuals in key          *    Contractual protections and retentions in employment 
                    positions to guarantee the long          contracts of senior management and other key 
                    term                                     employees. 
                    success of the business. We 
                    need to ensure the diversity of 
                    our workforce reflects the          *    Training and development of employees, which includes 
                    communities                              a programme of IOD and ILM courses for senior 
                    in which we work. Without                management and identified potential successors, and 
                    talented employees we will be            apprenticeship and other vocational courses for 
                    unable to deliver our strategic          specialist and technical roles. 
                    aims. 
 
                    Competitive labour local            *    Appropriate remuneration and benefits, together with 
                    markets and the aftermath of             bonus opportunities and incentive plans offered to 
                    COVID-19 led to challenging              employees. 
                    recruitment 
                    conditions for our operating 
                    companies in the first half of      *    Recruitment process developed to include competency 
                    the year. In the second half of          requirements and skills gap analysis. 
                    the year these pressures eased 
                    due to rising unemployment and 
                    a more difficult economic           *    Talent review process extended in scope to cover more 
                    climate,                                 employees, increasing our visibility of talent. 
                    subsequently time to recruit 
                    and the number of vacancies 
                    across the Group have both 
                    reduced. 
                    The issue does remain though 
                    for certain skillsets that are 
                    more challenging to find and 
                    retain, 
                    e.g., Welders. 
 
                    Our senior leadership gender 
                    diversity has improved in 2022 
                    to 20%, due to both internal 
                    promotions 
                    and external hires. An 
                    increased focus on engagement 
                    and corrective actions 
                    following the 
                    2021 engagement survey has led 
                    to an improved score for the 
                    2022 engagement survey, 
                    increasing 
                    from 55% to 61%. The process to 
                    find a permanent CEO is 
                    underway. 
 
                    Overall, a reduction in the 
                    risk has been recognised for 
                    the period. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Prevention of harm or injury to people 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Culture of zero tolerance in respect of health & 
                    The Group is committed to                safety violations promoted by the Board and 
                    preventing all health and                disseminated throughout Group businesses. 
                    safety incidents and ensuring 
                    the health, 
                    safety and wellbeing of all         *    Reduction of the Group's LTI rates is a key focus for 
                    employees and third parties.             Management and the Board, with improvement metrics 
                    The Group operates multiple              now established through the ESG Committee. 
                    manufacturing 
                    facilities around the world, a 
                    failure in the Group's health &     *    Monthly health & safety reporting for all operating 
                    safety procedures could lead             companies via online tools. 
                    to injury or to the death of 
                    employees or third parties. 
                                                        *    Monitoring and review of LTI rates by Group with all 
                    LTIR has reduced from 1.7 in             LTI events followed up and investigated thoroughly 
                    2021 to 1.1 in 2022. Further             using the 'five whys' root cause analysis and 
                    improvement is required to               presented to the Exec Board. Improvement 
                    reach                                    recommendations are implemented to minimise any 
                    the 2030 Health & Safety target          reoccurrence. 
                    of 0.25 and health & safety 
                    remains a key focus area for 
                    the                                 *    Development and roll out (Jan 2023) of our 'nine 
                    Group.                                   lifesaving rules' and 'non-negotiable safety 
                                                             behaviours' 
 
 
                                                        *    Programme to add defibrillators to all sites 
                                                             commenced in 2022. 
 
 
                                                        *    Regular health & safety site audits. 
 
 
                                                        *    Health & safety forums to monitor performance and 
                                                             share best practice. 
 
 
                                                        *    External health & safety accreditations and 
                                                             relationships maintained with regulatory bodies. 
 
 
                                                        *    Health & safety is a priority area of focus for new 
                                                             acquisitions. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Risk: Violation of applicable laws and regulations 
 Trend              Description and potential         Mitigation 
  No change         impact                              *    Group Code of Conduct sets out required approach for 
                    The Group's global operations            all staff. 
                    must comply with a range of 
                    national and international laws 
                    and regulations including those     *    Staff training provided on Modern Slavery red flags, 
                    related to modern slavery,               Anti-Bribery and Corruption and Competition 
                    anti-bribery and corruption,             compliance. 
                    human 
                    rights, and employment, GDPR, 
                    trade/export compliance and         *    Programme of audits undertaken on a cyclical basis to 
                    competition/anti-trust.                  review operating companies' compliance with 
                                                             regulatory requirements, including for example 
                    A failure to comply with any             simulated 'dawn raids'. 
                    applicable laws and regulations 
                    could result in civil or 
                    criminal                            *    Software solutions implemented globally to ensure 
                    liabilities and/ or individual           compliance with trade and export legislation. 
                    or corporate fines and could 
                    also result in debarment from 
                    Government-related contracts,       *    Externally hosted whistleblowing hotline available to 
                    restrictions on ability to               all employees to allow them to raise concerns in 
                    trade or rejection by financial          confidence or anonymously, if preferred. 
                    counterparties 
                    as well as reputational damage. 
                                                        *    Modern Slavery compliance programme continued through 
                    Our exposure to breaching                2022. 
                    sanctions placed on Russia is 
                    low due to no current direct 
                    Russian                             *    Toolkits issued to all UK operating companies to aid 
                    customers or suppliers. Our              compliance with GDPR. 
                    export compliance software 
                    performs daily screening of our 
                    customer 
                    and supplier databases against 
                    global sanctioned and denied 
                    party lists with any changes in 
                    status flagged. 
                   --------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

Appendix B - Responsibility Statement of the Directors pursuant to Disclosure and Transparency Rule 4

The following statement is extracted from page 116 of the 2022 Annual Report and is repeated here for the purposes of compliance with DTR 6.3.5. This statement relates solely to the 2022 Annual Report and is not connected to the extracted information set out in this announcement or the Preliminary Announcement.

We confirm that to the best of our knowledge

- the Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with the applicable set of accounting standards, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole; and

- the Strategic Report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the issuer and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that they face.

We consider the Annual Report and Accounts, taken as a whole, is fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Group's position and performance, business model and strategy.

Appendix C - Related Party Transactions

The key management personnel are considered to be the Board of Directors of Hill & Smith PLC, whose remuneration can be seen in the Remuneration Committee Report on pages 92 to 104 and the members of the Executive Board who are not also Directors of the Group, and in the related party details on page 190 (note 15) of the 2022 Annual Report.

Alex Henderson

Company Secretary

Hill & Smith PLC

Tel: +44 (0) 121 704 7430

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