TIDMCTG
RNS Number : 3374R
Christie Group PLC
14 June 2018
14 June 2018
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 and Chief Executive, David
Rugg, issued the following statement:
"As I advised at the time of the release of our 2017 results in
April, the year started well. I'm pleased to say that progress
continues. In particular, our international businesses have
performed better overall than in the corresponding period last
year.
Professional Business Services
We have enjoyed a busy period featuring several noteworthy
transactions. At Christie & Co our childcare and education
specialists have just announced the sale of Mace Montessori
schools. Mace is the UK's largest Montessori group, comprising 10
schools based around central London. Christie & Co recently
completed the investment sale of Si Centrum in Stuttgart, the
largest complex we have ever sold. This comprises 126 square meters
of leisure and entertainments facilities, plus 192 apartments.
Our strategy of maintaining regionally based sector specialist
ensures we are a "go to" choice for equity owners and financiers of
multi-site chains seeking to maximise proceeds through a sale of
their constituent business units, be that pubs, hotels, care or
retail operations. For example, we have recently been selected to
sell 145 Wyevale Garden Centres, the UK's largest chain of such
businesses.
Christie Finance continues to support our transactional business
through the procurement of debt funding, now on both a secured and
unsecured basis. Our finance brokers have significantly increased
their pipeline of deals in the course of funding.
New initiatives are planned to boost volumes of Christie
Insurance's placement of cover of trading businesses in our second
half. We have also seen an increase in demand for Cyber
Insurance.
Pinders, our appraisal business, has seen a strong volume of
valuation instructions in the "white coat" sectors. It also
continues to attract instructions as experts for dispute resolution
work. Most such assignments are settled out of court from positions
Pinders establish and substantiate.
Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
Performance in our first half has been constrained by the
tightness of the labour market, particularly the availability of
casual staff. We have reacted by creating full time opportunities
where possible, whilst retaining flexibility.
In the UK we believe that there will be a consolidation of the
supply of retail stocktaking services given the reduction of stock
levels retailed through the store. We intend to benefit from such
consolidation. In Europe we have won work from Adidas, Pepsi,
Intermarche and others.
In the hospitality sector, Venners continues to deliver growth.
Alongside being appointed as stocktakers to Millennium Hotels and
Giggling Squid restaurants, they have also experienced a major
demand for compliance audit assistance, mainly due to the slowdown
in the casual dining market and the resultant requirement for
control over costs.
Vennersys, our online enterprise system for family entertainment
business, has added to its user base with Bentley Priory Museum,
Wild n Wacky, Painshill Park Trust and Dunvegan Castle, amongst
others.
Encouragingly and as anticipated, our existing clients' business
continues to migrate online, meaning that an increasing proportion
of their revenue is secured online, through our portal.
Retirement - Tony Chambers
Our Senior Non-Executive Director, Tony Chambers, stands down
from the board today. Tony joined our board in 2004. I take this
opportunity to express both personally and on behalf of the board
our appreciation and admiration of Tony's astute and stalwart
service over the past 14 years. We wish both Tony and his wife
Rosemary a long and fulfilling retirement.
Summary
In summary, our progress has been maintained. We remain
optimistic of the outturn for the year as a whole."
Enquiries:
Christie Group plc
David Rugg 020 7227 0707
Chairman and Chief Executive
Dan Prickett 020 7227 0700
Chief Operating 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 44 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
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END
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