52 Contingent liabilities
Royal Bank of Scotland
Spectris plc and its UK subsidiaries are party to a cross guarantee arrangement to support trade finance facilities provided by the bank. They also are party to a cross guarantee arrangement that allows individual subsidiaries to borrow from the bank on overdraft within the overall borrowing limit agreed with the bank. An amount of £3.7m (2006: £3.6m) was outstanding at 31 December 2007.
JP Morgan Chase NA
Spectris plc has provided a parent company guarantee to JP Morgan Chase NA to support trade finance facilities provided by the bank to its subsidiaries in the USA. An amount of £0.6m (2006: £1.0m) was outstanding at 31 December 2007.
ABN AMRO Bank NV
Spectris plc has provided a parent company guarantee to ABN AMRO Bank NV to support trade finance facilities provided by the bank to its subsidiaries in various countries outside of the UK and USA. Spectris plc has also provided a parent company guarantee to ABN AMRO Bank NV to support overdraft and intra-day facilities provided by the bank to its subsidiaries who participate in the cross-border euro zero balance pooling arrangement. An amount of £6.7m (2006: £6.0m) was outstanding at 31 December 2007.