Duet Real Est Share Discussion Threads

[scburbs] 21/4/2016 14:38

News should be imminent. Will be interesting to see if there is a c. 8 month early repayment premium (may not sound like much, but interest rate on the loan is 13.25%!).

"State-owned HNA International Investment (0521) said it has acquired 17 Columbus Courtyard, a London commercial building, for HK$1.44 billion, with cash from a rights issue to UK-based investor Fourteen Ninety Two.
The A-grade office building in Canary Wharf has a floor area of 195,400 square feet, and is single let to Credit Suisse until November 2024. Last year's rent was HK$70.4 million."

hxxp://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=168466

[nk104] 31/3/2016 13:27

Thanks WCB - the results weren't exactly a model of clarity. I'm trying to work out if there's much to gain (or lose) in buying some more.

[westcountryboy] 30/3/2016 17:39

Interesting final results. NAV equivalent on 31 December (post capital return) was 14.27p if I have done my sums right. It has reduced like for like since 30 Sept, if it is meant to include the 2.91p uplift from the realisation of Loan 5. It should have been 15.2p. A number of possible reasons:

- annual expenses may not have been charged to NAV before - they are now £340k which is going to have an impact (about 0.45p)

- accrual for a performance fee is mentioned in the notes but I can't see any figure for this

- the valuation of the three remaining loans other than Columbus Courtyard has reduced very slightly since 30 June

- I am not entirely sure that the NAV given on 31 Dec is sensitive to the uplift for Loan 5: the sum received from the Master Fund for this in January is given at £10.979m. So might there still be some uplift due there?

No dividend this quarter which is not a problem.

No news on Columbus Courtyard, though there have been a couple more articles saying sale was imminent for a sum in excess of the £132.3m. I note the value of the loan in the accounts rose from £21m to £21.7m in the last six months.

No reason to think that any of the loans will pose a problem, or that the wind-up date will pose a problem.

I note that £170k of income was received on 12 Feb so if we include that then NAV would be 14.56p.

Altogether I am not much clearer! But I hope that interest received this year will at least match expenses and that therefore we can expect the NAV to stay robust.

[langland] 23/3/2016 22:22

Yes I saw that and was wondering whether it was a buy back.

[scburbs] 23/3/2016 19:38

A bit more volume than usual with 180k going through at 13.5p or c.8% more than I paid yesterday.

[scburbs] 26/2/2016 12:43

Latest on O'Donnell case. Very explicit statement to court that all parties support the disposal proceeding.

"The High Court has continued orders preventing the sons of retired solicitor Brian O’Donnell and three companies dissipating any money they may get from the sale of a valuable property in London.

Blake and Bruce O’Donnell had argued there was no need for such orders and contended Bank of Ireland’s action seeking them was an effort to damage their reputations. Bank of Ireland claims firms connected to Blake and Bruce O’Donnell may get as much as £6 million (€7.6m) from the sale of Columbus Courtyard, Canary Wharf, after substantial debts on the building, valued at some €132 million, have been paid, Bank of Ireland claims.

...

The bank wants the Columbus Courtyard sale to proceed, as do the O’Donnells and the court-appointed official administering the bankruptcy, the court heard on Wednesday.

...

He did not see how these proceedings could have any affect on the sale of the property, the judge added."

[scburbs] 23/2/2016 10:58

One potential stumbling block to the Canary Wharf sale was the action by Bank of Ireland against Brian O'Donnell transferring the shares which are being sold to his son Blake O'Donnell. If BoI were making any claim over the shares this could have delayed any sale (indeed this could potentially have been a reason why the sale was removed from the Knight Frank website).

Happily it seems that Bank of Ireland are only taking action against the £6m proceeds which Blake O'Donnell is due to receive imminently. Proceeds of £6m to the equity holder means senior, junior A (DREF) and junior B (Partners Group) being paid out in full, hopefully with a nice early repayment fee!

Looks like news can't be far away now, perhaps contracts have exchanged but not completed. Good spot on the withdrawal from the Knight Frank website which does indeed appear to indicate imminent sale, now confirmed by this article.

"Blake O’Donnell, a son of retired solicitor Brian O’Donnell, has described as “scurrilous” a bank’s claims concerning potential dissipation of assets from an expected imminent sale of a valuable property in London.

Blake, who is also a solicitor, was responding in the High Court to claims made last week by Bank of Ireland (BoI) when it sought orders preventing Blake, his brother Bruce and three British Virgin Island-registered companies dissipating an estimated £6 million (€7.7 million) proceeds expected from sale of a property, Columbus Courtyard, in Canary Wharf.

...

Stephen Dowling BL, for the bank, said his client was concerned about the proceeds of the sale being dissipated and was standing over the claims it had made to the court. A six week adjournment was too long, counsel argued."

[westcountryboy] 19/2/2016 09:44

Yes I was just about to post the same. The quarterly NAV and dividend announcement has been made on 13 Feb the last two years, so it seems fairly clear that they were waiting for resolution on Columbus Courtyard before releasing the latest NAV update, which should now be with us fairly soon. Meanwhile the shares are quite cheap - I picked up some more at 12.82p yesterday.

[scburbs] 03/2/2016 13:30

Thanks erstwhile2, will be good if they can get it done this week. Canary Wharf continues to look good for purchasers.

"Canary Wharf rent is rising faster than anywhere else in London, according to Knight Frank.

The estate agent said that office rent in Canary Wharf will increase 12.8 per cent in 2016"

[scburbs] 26/1/2016 19:12

Property Week reports 17 Columbus Courtyard being under offer to Chinese conglomerate HNA Group.

Last year they bought 30 South Colonnade at Canary Wharf which was on the market for £215m.

One report suggests the offer for Columbus Courtyard is over the asking price.

[nk104] 21/1/2016 20:27

WCB - cheers, forgot about the dividend.

[westcountryboy] 21/1/2016 19:23

NK - you need to subtract the 0.3 divi paid in December - so
NAV is theoretically 15.2p. In practice it will be something else - because of gains through interest payments, and these mysterious other events. I am fairly optimistic that the events are good news (as they have nearly always been in the past), given what we discussed above in this thread, but of course there could be some bad news instead! I hope they will announce an updated NAV fairly soon, but perhaps they are waiting for resolution on one or more of the remaining loans.

[andy pipkin] 21/1/2016 18:51

Lumped in today. Looks good.

[nk104] 21/1/2016 17:46

OK, so where are we.

The most recent NAV was 27.52p from September and there was an addition of 2.91p from the subsequent realisation. That makes 30.43p. Knock off the 14.93p return and that leaves 15.5p as an approximate NAV.

OK the 5 Jan update says 'any future updated NAV of the Company will also take into account numerous other factors and updated information', but there might still be a bit in this.

[skyship] 21/1/2016 13:33

Wanted to have more cash to possibly snipe at a few emerging bargains - so sold my position at an average of 12.575; ie 27.5p pre the capital repayment. A useful investment; though regrettably only a 5% allocation.

[300808] 21/1/2016 11:04

Why such a drop ?

[nk104] 21/1/2016 10:43

Now trading net of the 14.93p payment.

[skyship] 12/1/2016 08:59

Courant - yes also in there, though again only with a small allocation. Expecting the next maturity to trigger another capital repayment...perhaps I should add in anticipation - after all, it is winter and getting colder in the US!

[courant] 12/1/2016 08:28

I'm also in here, thanks to WCB's post - managed to get in before the rise. Don't forget TLI too as an extremely attractive play with a slightly longer time horizon (good for CGT reasons!)

[skyship] 12/1/2016 08:15

Welcome Onwego

Presumably no coincidence that the one thing APT & DREF have in common is that they are both companies in liquidation.

The SL thread covers many others, including favourites LMS, LSR & LXB.

[onwego] 11/1/2016 22:02

@WCB thanks for flagging this one up on the Fool. Your's and Skyship's posts also convinced me to finally open an ADVFN a/c too.

Bought some DREF. Also involved in Axa APT.

rgds

[skyship] 11/1/2016 08:31

Well done - sounds as though you have quite a reasonable allocation. I bought a few more @ 25p this morning.

Also well spotted re Columbus Courtyard......very interesting....

[westcountryboy] 11/1/2016 08:15

Quite a lot of activity this morning! I see the Columbus Courtyard property is now 'under offer' on the Knight Frank site. I hope that means that something around the asking price has been found. I wonder why that is why they are being rather coy about the updated NAV.