- Self storage business located mainly in London and its southern suburbs that floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 2000.
- Has been hit hard by recessionary conditions.
- Recently said occupancy of its storage space fell by 3 percent in the three months ending in September, with trading conditions also tough in the last three months of 2008.
- Signed five year management agreement with an affiliate of HSBC Specialist Investments Ltd. to manage a portfolio of 10 self storage centres. The 10 stores are located in the north of England and Scotland, and would be branded as Armadillo Self Storage.
- Adrian Lee, operations director at Big Yellow Group, sold nearly £250,000 in shares in the self-storage firm. He offloaded 123,462 shares at an average price of 196p a share, retaining 889,187 shares or 77 percent of the issued share capital of the company.
One to watch, according to the Scotsman in May 2008.
Self-storage, as a commercial prospect, was pioneered in the US and has only recently – that is, over the past five years or so – begun to develop into the UK. However, with central urban costs rising and the sometimes draconian compliance regulations on the need to retain paper records for a fixed period of time, the appeal of a relatively cheap, if fairly basic, out-of-town storage facility is self-apparent.
Since then, the value has halved!
http://business.scotsman.com/market-reports/One-to-watch.4093988.jp
