REG-Panther Securities: Property sale, trading update and special dividend

Panther SecuritiesAnnouncement

16/04/2018 15:05

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:

                                                                       
 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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