16 April
2018
Prior to publication, the information contained within this
announcement was deemed by the Company to constitute inside
information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU)
No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement,
this information is now considered to be in the public domain.
Panther Securities
PLC
(the “Company” or
the “Group”)
Property sale,
trading update and special dividend
Sale of St Nicholas House, St Nicholas
Road, Sutton
The Company is pleased to announce that it has exchanged
contracts to sell its joint freehold/leasehold interest in St
Nicholas House. Surrey Motors Limited is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Panther Securities PLC which was acquired in
1987. Its sole asset is the freehold of St Nicholas House, St
Nicholas Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1EY, which is a building of
approximately 140,000 sq ft gross accommodation. The basement and
ground floor are used for retail/ancillary storage and
parking. The nine upper floors are offices.
The building was originally constructed in the early 1960s with
the offices purpose built for the Crown Agents, a quasi-government
organisation, which originally took a 99 year lease at a ground
rent which had proportionate rental reviews every 21 years.
This lease had an option to extend for 25 years (on the same
terms), but ignoring the option had approximately 44 years to run
at a low ground rent and thus had a significant value.
Early last year, the Crown Agents approached the Company
indicating that it wanted to dispose of its interest in the
building and it was agreed that the Company and the Crown Agents
should offer their joint interests in the freehold/leasehold
building which would enable the freehold of the site to be offered
with vacant possession at an early date.
After a marketing campaign by the joint agents, Carter Jonas, a number of offers were received
and the Company is now pleased to announce that it has exchanged
contracts to sell the joint freehold/leasehold interest to Saint
Nicholas House Ltd, with completion due in three months’ time. The
Group’s share of the gross sale price proceeds amounts to
approximately £7,837,500, with a possible small overage that is to
be confirmed, but is not currently anticipated to be
material. This compares to a recent revalued book figure of
£5,540,000 for the Company’s interests alone. The total
consideration receivable by both the Group and the Crown Agents for
the total joint freehold/leasehold interest in St Nicholas House is
£12,750,000.
Following completion, the Company will no longer receive
£320,000 p.a. rental income on this investment property.
As is its usual policy on deferred completions, the Company
insisted on having the deposit of approximately £783,000 released
to it, which has now happened.
The Company is very pleased with the successful outcome of its
association with the Crown Agents in managing to bring this sale to
initial fruition where both the Company and the Crown Agents have
both benefited from the marriage of their respective interests.
It is likely that the funds received by the Company will be used
to repay its revolving loans (that can be redrawn if required), and
partly held as free cash.
Holloway
Head, Birmingham
The completion of the sale of the Company’s development site in
Holloway Head, Birmingham
(previously announced) has been deferred again until 31 July 2018.
As well as a payment of £1,020,000 received last year, the
Company received £400,000 in part payment on 9 April 2018 and it is expecting to receive a
further £470,000 of the purchase consideration at the end of
May 2018, with the balance payable on
completion.
As a result, most of the profit on this transaction will be
brought into the current year’s accounts after the actual
completion takes place. Because the purchasers have expended
a considerable non-recoverable amount, we are very hopeful that
this sale will complete.
Dividend
Due to the good results made in the year ended 31 December 2017, and the progress made at the
start of the current year, the Company is declaring a 10p per share
special interim dividend to be paid on 18
May 2018 with a record date of 27
April 2018 (ex-dividend date 26 April 2018).
For further information:
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Panther Securities plc: |
Tel: 01707 667
300 |
Andrew Perloff/ Simon Peters |
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Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad
and Joint Broker) |
Tel: 020 3328
5656 |
David Worlidge/ Alex Brearley |
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