"The Group continues to perform well.

 

Our Distribution division is trading strongly led by good sales growth from partworks, magazines and Sunday newspapers.

 

The impact of war in Iraq on our Aviation division was limited. We are closely monitoring the effect of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) but it is too early to quantify the full effect. Although we anticipate that the full year Aviation result will be slightly below the top end of market expectations, we still expect Aviation to make good progress for the year."