TIDMCTG
RNS Number : 9980H
Christie Group PLC
14 June 2017
14 June 2017
Christie Group plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")
AGM Statement
Christie Group plc (CTG.L), the leading provider of Professional
Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
to the leisure, retail and care markets, announces that at today's
Annual General Meeting, the Chairman, Philip Gwyn, issued the
following statement:
"As I advised in April at the time of the release of our 2016
results, 2017 started strongly. The announcement of a General
Election did not deter business buyers, but the supply of
businesses coming to market was somewhat constrained. Typically,
business proprietors own their business on a long term basis and
will therefore often understandably await major political outcomes
before opting to sell.
Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
In Europe our retail stocktaking operation, Orridge, has secured
significant new wins - including Telecom in Germany, Claire's
Accessories and Hugo Boss - and has a full order book for the
second half. In the UK, we supported Co-Op Food's sale of 300
stores to McColls by performing pre- sale and sale-day stocktakes,
demonstrating our capability to carry out large-scale counts.
Affirming the quality and accuracy of our services, the Superdrug
and Savers brands will return exclusively to Orridge in the second
half of the year.
Our hospitality and leisure stocktaking business, Venners,
launched its Audit Hub as an online interface to our Health and
Safety customers. We anticipate that food pricing inflation will
bring increased emphasis by restauranteurs on quantified menu
preparation and food sourcing and control. New clients included
Malmaison /Hotel Du Vin, Peach Pub Company, Route Organisation and
Sam Smith's.
Vennersys, our online visitor attraction systems provider, has
signed orders with Spa Valley, Leicester City Council, Chiltern Air
Museum, William Memorial and others for go-live in H2. Existing
sites have now virtually all been transferred to our new VENPos
Cloud product with the small number remaining due to transfer in
Q3. We are therefore on track to switch off our legacy system this
year. We enjoy a strong conversion rate from enquiries to sales,
confirming the attraction of our fully integrated system.
Professional Business Services
In the UK, we enjoyed continued demand for businesses in all our
sectors. Illustrating this, we exchanged contracts on the sale of a
group of seven pubs by Whitbread to Marstons for GBP12.5 million,
we acted for Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., the American REIT, on
their acquisition of Gold Care in a deal worth over GBP90 million
and, also in the Care sector, for LRH to sell thirteen homes for
over GBP70 million. In Childcare we sold the sixteen-strong Magic
Nurseries portfolio to the leading French nursery group Le Petits
Chaperons Rouges.
Elsewhere, our Medical team sold eleven pharmacies on behalf of
Mid County Co-Op as well as fourteen for Lloyds Pharmacy as a
result of the CMA judgement following its acquisition of
Sainsbury's pharmacy estate. In Retail, we sold the chain of High
Noon Stores to Euro Garages.
Our appraisal business, Pinders, was appointed as business
valuers to the new Atom Bank. It enjoyed a record period for
claims-related business advisory income and undertook an extensive
Buildings Review of the Belfry for KSL Capital Partners.
Christiefinance.com is quickly being recognised as the 'go-to'
resource for those looking to finance or refinance businesses in
our sectors. Its continuing development sees it rank above many
prime lenders in an internet search.
Summary
We anticipate recording a materially improved first-half over
that seen in H1 2016, despite the interruption of the General
Election. Looking forwards, we then foresee a stronger second
half's trading than the first and therefore an improved result for
the year as a whole."
Enquiries:
Christie Group plc
David Rugg 020 7227 0707
Chief Executive
Dan Prickett 020 7227 0700
Chief Financial Officer
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited:
Dominic Morley / Charles Leigh-Pemberton 020 7886 2906
Nominated Adviser & Broker
Notes to Editors:
Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional
business services group with 45 offices across the UK, Europe and
Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the leisure, retail
and care sectors.
Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions:
Professional Business Services (PBS) and Stock & Inventory
Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the
brand names: PBS - Christie + Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and
Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.
Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long
established reputation for offering essential services to client
companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy,
project management, multi-functional trading systems and online
ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The
diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the
Group's core agency business.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.
For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
AGMUOSNRBNANAAR
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June 14, 2017 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
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