Applegreen PLC Annual Report and Notice of AGM (4613T)

TIDMAPGN

RNS Number : 4613T

Applegreen PLC

20 July 2020

Applegreen plc

("Applegreen" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Publication of Annual Report and Accounts and Notice of AGM

Dublin, London, 20 July 2020: Further to its announcement of 30 June 2020, the Company confirms that its annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019 ("Annual Report") has been published and is available to view on the Company's website at www.applegreenstores.com. The Annual Report and a notice c onvening an Annual General Meeting will be sent to shareholders shortly.

The Company's Annual General Meeting is expected to be held at 11.00 am on Tuesday, 1 September 2020. We acknowledge there is currently some uncertainty as to whether it will be possible for shareholders to attend the AGM in person in light of COVID-19 restrictions and will provide a further update on this in the notice c onvening the Annual General Meeting.

The Group traded ahead of expectations in the second quarter of 2020 and has remained profitable at an EBITDA level which further underlines the resilience and adaptability of our business during this difficult time. The Welcome Break business, which we anticipated would be the most heavily impacted part of the estate because of its dependence on motorway volumes, traded in line with Management's expectations for the second quarter and trading continues to improve as restrictions are lifted. The remainder of the Applegreen estate traded ahead of Management's expectations, aided by strong store sales in the local petrol filling station sites, good fuel margins and extensive cost saving measures.

The Group's cash position is more positive than expected due to the stronger than expected performance. As at 30 June 2020, the Group had consolidated net external debt (pre-IFRS 16) of approximately EUR550m (31 December 2019: EUR525m), comprising approximately EUR110m of cash and approximately EUR660m of external debt which includes Welcome Break facilities that are non-recourse to the wider Applegreen group:

-- approximately EUR70m of cash and EUR260m of external debt within the Applegreen plc banking group; and

   --    approximately EUR40m of cash and EUR400m of external debt within Welcome Break. 

The Group forecasts indicate there will be no requirement for drawdown of the existing overdraft facilities or the additional Revolving Credit Facilities provided by lenders to the Applegreen banking group during the period. Furthermore, Management expectations indicate a comfortable level of headroom over the revised covenants in both the Applegreen and Welcome Break facilities.

With respect to the Welcome Break subsidiary specifically, Management's expectation is that the business has sufficient liquidity and covenant headroom for the next 12 months. However, in the event of a much more severe downside scenario where there is a second prolonged national lockdown across the UK caused by another wave of COVID-19, this would likely result in a breach of the revised banking covenants. In such a circumstance the Board would need to take further mitigating actions and/or re-negotiate with lenders to avoid potentially triggering a repayment of outstanding debt. Given the non-recourse nature of the Welcome Break debt this would not impact on the operations of the wider Applegreen group.

Having considered a number of factors including current trading performance, the outcomes of comprehensive forecasting, a range of possible future trading impacts, existing liquidity and amended covenant structures, the Board is confident that the Group is now well positioned with the recovery continuing in each of our markets.

For further enquiries, please contact:

 
 Applegreen                                    [phone] 
 Bob Etchingham (CEO) / Niall Dolan (CFO) 
 
 Drury Porter Novelli (Ireland PR Advisor)     [phone] 
 Paddy Hughes 
 
 MHP Communications (UK PR Advisor)            [phone] 
 Simon Hockridge / Peter Hewer / Alistair 
  de Kare-Silver                               [phone] 
 
 Shore Capital                                 [phone] 
 Stephane Auton / Patrick Castle / Daniel 
  Bush 
 
 Goodbody                                      [phone] 
 Joe Gill / Richard Tunney 
 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact [e-mail] or visit www.rns.com.

END

MSCQBLBLBDLBBBE

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2020 02:10 ET (06:10 GMT)