Hunters Property PLC AGM Statement and Trading Update (4897O)

TIDMHUNT

RNS Number : 4897O

Hunters Property PLC

18 May 2018

Embargoed 7.00a.m.

18 May 2018

HUNTERS PROPERTY PLC

("Hunters" or the "Group")

AGM Statement and Trading Update

Hunters (AIM - HUNT) one of the UK's largest franchised sales and lettings agency businesses, issues an AGM Statement and Trading Update for the first four months of the year, ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held today at 10.00 am. The Chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, will make the following statement:

"So far this year we have signed nine new Hunters branches and have opened three. The Group has a strong pipeline of agreed sales and has increased instructions in the four months to the end of April. Excluding the effect of the acquisition of our Bristol chain, formerly known as Besley Hill, instructions are up by 5.4% against the same period last year, which should lay the ground for a comparatively strong second half performance.

The first half year is expected to end slightly better than the Board anticipated giving us confidence in the full year outcome for the Group. The government has put forward proposals to regulate the industry and to ban certain tenant fees. Given our strong sales profile our exposure is expected to be less significant than other lettings only based participants. Furthermore, we believe we will receive an increase in enquiries to join our Network to take advantage of our procurement and training, e-learning and support packages, which will prove invaluable in the new regulated environment and as we help good independent agents manage the transition.

Finally, I am delighted to announce our Customer Service Rating this year has increased to 96% across both sales and lettings and we retain a healthy pipeline of parties looking to join the network. I look forward to updating you further as the year progresses."

For more information, please contact:

 
 Hunters Property Plc 
  Glynis Frew, Chief Executive Officer 
  Ed Jones, Chief Financial Officer               01904 756 197 
 SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated 
  Adviser) 
  Mark Brady 
  Neil Baldwin                                    020 3368 3551 
 Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers Limited (Broker) 
  David Poutney 
  James Serjeant                                  020 3903 7715 
 Smithfield Consultants (Financial PR) 
  Alex Simmons                                    020 7360 4900 
 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

MSCSFUFMWFASESI

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 18, 2018 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)