18 April 2024
Palace
Capital plc
("Palace
Capital" or the "Company")
DISPOSALS
AND DEBT UPDATE
Palace Capital (LSE: PCA) announces
an update on disposals and its debt position since the Company last announced on 7 February 2024.
Disposals
· The Company
has unconditionally exchanged or completed on the sale of five
investment properties for £15.3 million which, after adjusting for
rent incentives, is 5.7% and 3.7% below the March and September
2023 valuations respectively. The sales comprised:
o Kiln
Farm, Milton Keynes for £6.5 million;
o Sandringham House, Harlow for £3.3 million;
o Unit
5, Harnham Business Park, Salisbury for £3.2 million;
o Kings Park House, Southampton for £2.1 million;
o and
a small car park in Northampton for £0.2 million.
· The completion of
these sales now provides the Company with various options for
returning capital to shareholders, including a tender offer.
Further properties are currently under offer which, if they all
complete in the next few months, will provide additional cash for
returning to shareholders.
· Sales activity at Hudson Quarter continues with one apartment
completed for £0.6 million and five apartments totalling £2.7
million under offer, leaving 12 units remaining. Assuming these
sales complete the proceeds together with the apartment completed
for £0.6 million will be 2.1% and 1.5% below the March and
September 2023 valuations respectively.
·
Since 1 April 2023, the Company
has unconditionally exchanged or completed on the sale of 23
investment properties for £103.4 million which is 3.1% ahead of the
31 March 2023 valuation.
Balance Sheet and Debt
· Since 1
April 2023, the Company has repaid £56.0 million of floating rate
debt and now has only one debt facility remaining, which is at a
fixed interest rate of 2.9% until July 2026.
· The effect of
these latest sales is to put the Company into a net cash position
and as at 17 April 2024, gross debt was
£8.3 million and proforma cash reserves totalled £29.2 million,
resulting in net cash of £20.9 million and £19.5 million after the
payment of the interim dividend of 3.75 pence per share on 19 April
2024, as previously announced.
· Since
the start of the share buyback programme in July 2022, the Company
has returned £21.9 million to shareholders by purchasing c.8.8
million shares at an average price of 248 pence per
share.
Commenting on today's update, Steven Owen, Executive Chairman
said:
"Notwithstanding challenging
property and financial markets, we have continued to progress our
disposal strategy with the result that the Company is now in a
substantial net cash position. We expect to
announce a significant return of capital to
shareholders, likely through a tender offer, in due course and
ahead of the Company's preliminary results for the year ended 31
March 2024 which are scheduled to be reported in June."
Palace Capital plc
Steven
Owen, Executive Chairman
info@palacecapitalplc.com
Financial PR
FTI
Consulting
Dido Laurimore / Giles Barrie
Tel: +44 (0)20 3727 1000
palacecapital@fticonsulting.com