Inchcape, AM100 (8), has said in a trading statement released ahead of its annual meeting today, that despite the forecast dip in the UK car market, its own UK retail operations have made a positive start to the year and is predicted to continue.

Regarding the £65m share buy-back that Inchcape announced in February, the company had returned £14.6m to shareholders by yesterday via the purchase of some 764,000 shares at an average £19.10p per share.

Inchcape added that its unaudited results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the year ended December 31, 2004, shows a broadly neutral effect on pre-tax profit.

Net assets are reduced under IFRS, mainly due to the inclusion of the net pension deficit in the balance sheet. Cash flow and the underlying economics of the business are “unchanged”.