5 December
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”)
Trading update and
special dividend
Significant letting
In our interim accounts we stated that we had agreed a
substantial letting on our industrial building in Maldon. It
is pleasing to confirm that we have now completed a three year
lease for a rental of £650,000 p.a. from November 2018, and will still have some space
available which will yield further rentals when let.
As a reminder, we refurbished this unit with surrender payments
for dilapidations, which included carrying out roof works for
£315,000. In total we have spent circa £600,000 on this
property since our tenant vacated. This property was
previously let for £500,000 p.a., and we received £1,950,000 to
accept a surrender in March 2017
in lieu of dilapidations and loss of future rental.
This is useful additional income following our recent
disposals.
Beales Ltd
Beales Ltd (“Beales”) was previously owned by Portnard Ltd,
which owns 47% of Panther Securities PLC. In October 2018, Beales was sold to its management
and now have additional backing from a private equity house.
This did not change any trading or commercial relationship
with the Panther Group.
Beales has circa £1 million of rental arrears, mainly relating
to its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) period, which it has not
managed to catch up on. We are in negotiations with the new
owners regarding Beales getting back up to date by April 2019, but will likely need to allow for a
discount on these historic arrears. The current rental arrears
provision, which has already been recognised, covers the loss that
we will likely take on the discount.
Purchase – Palmers Departments Stores,
Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth
We have purchased the following two freehold properties:
Great Yarmouth
This store is situated in the main shopping square and contains
about 57,000 sq ft of useable space. It also owns about half of the
Council run car park immediately behind the store, from which it
derives a substantial income.
The store is based at 37-39 Market Place, Great Yarmouth, NR30
1LU. This was purchased at a cost of £1,500,000 (excluding
acquisition costs, stamp duty and legal costs) and is subject to a
leaseback at £132,500 p.a.
Lowestoft
The store is based at 66 to 76 (even numbers) London Road North,
Lowestoft. This was purchased at a cost of £850,000 (excluding
acquisition costs, stamp duty and legal costs) and is subject to a
leaseback at £75,000 p.a. This property contains about 19,000
sq ft in the prime pedestrianised shopping position in the town,
with many well-known multiple traders adjoining and nearby.
Both the Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth properties are let on
three year leases with a tenant’s option for a further three years
at a revised rent. These are both department stores that have
been trading in the area for over 100 years.
These properties meet the Group’s criteria in that there is good
short-term income and substantial property value, and we feel that
in the medium to long-term we can realise strong growth via
potential alternative uses.
Since we completed our purchases, Beales have taken assignment
on both leases. Beales were previously in discussions with
Palmers, but broke off discussions when the management buyout of
Beales was being arranged and picked up these discussions again at
a later stage and completed the assignment.
We believe that the assignment is beneficial for the Panther
Group as we obtained better security, plus there is a likelihood
that Beales will aim to trade from these premises for more than the
existing lease term.
Purchase – Debenhams Department Store,
Dumfries
On 30 November 2018, we completed
the purchase of a freehold of Debenhams Department Store in
Dumfries for £1,100,000. The property is relatively modern
and contains 46,000 sq ft, with 15,000 sq ft of this being on the
ground floor in a prime pedestrianised position. The rental
income is £350,000 pa and it has a lease that expires in 2037 with
no breaks.
Given the well-publicised issues this tenant is facing, the
property could be considered to be slightly speculative, but if
Debenhams were to fail, we believe we could divide up the property
relatively easily and re-let, and still receive a high yield.
Bumper year
As mentioned in our interims, 2018 is likely to be the best year
that the Group has ever experienced, in terms of real cash
generated and realisations from sales of property. As such we
are proposing to celebrate this with another special dividend.
A special dividend of 15p per share will be paid to shareholders
on 17 January 2019 (ex-dividend on
27 December 2018 to shareholders on
the register on 28 December 2018).
In the light of the exceptional sales in the period and the
prospects for the subsequent period, the Board will assess the
opportunities available to the Group, but expects to pay a total of
no less than 12p per share for the year ending 31 December 2018 (with 6p of this sum having
already been paid on 29 November 2018
as an interim dividend).
Prospects
Even with the additional pay outs for dividends, we remain in a
strong position to weather uncertain economic conditions and have
funds available to take advantage of investment opportunities for
the long term benefit of our shareholders.
For further information:
|
|
Panther Securities plc: |
Tel: 01707 667
300 |
Andrew Perloff/ Simon Peters |
|
Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad
and Joint Broker) |
Tel: 020 3328
5656 |
David Worlidge/ Alex Brearley |
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