Panther Securities Trading update and special dividend

 
TIDMPNS 
 
5 December 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") 
 
                      Trading update and special dividend 
 
Significant letting 
 
In our interim accounts we stated that we had agreed a substantial letting on 
our industrial building in Maldon.  It is pleasing to confirm that we have now 
completed a three year lease for a rental of GBP650,000 p.a. from November 2018, 
and will still have some space available which will yield further rentals when 
let. 
 
As a reminder, we refurbished this unit with surrender payments for 
dilapidations, which included carrying out roof works for GBP315,000.  In total 
we have spent circa GBP600,000 on this property since our tenant vacated.  This 
property was previously let for GBP500,000 p.a., and we received GBP1,950,000 to 
accept a surrender in March 2017 in lieu of dilapidations and loss of future 
rental. 
 
This is useful additional income following our recent disposals. 
 
Beales Ltd 
 
Beales Ltd ("Beales") was previously owned by Portnard Ltd, which owns 47% of 
Panther Securities PLC.  In October 2018, Beales was sold to its management and 
now have additional backing from a private equity house.  This did not change 
any trading or commercial relationship with the Panther Group. 
 
Beales has circa GBP1 million of rental arrears, mainly relating to its company 
voluntary arrangement (CVA) period, which it has not managed to catch up on. 
We are in negotiations with the new owners regarding Beales getting back up to 
date by April 2019, but will likely need to allow for a discount on these 
historic arrears. The current rental arrears provision, which has already been 
recognised, covers the loss that we will likely take on the discount. 
 
Purchase - Palmers Departments Stores, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth 
 
We have purchased the following two freehold properties: 
 
Great Yarmouth 
 
This store is situated in the main shopping square and contains about 57,000 sq 
ft of useable space. It also owns about half of the Council run car park 
immediately behind the store, from which it derives a substantial income. 
 
The store is based at 37-39 Market Place, Great Yarmouth, NR30 1LU. This was 
purchased at a cost of GBP1,500,000 (excluding acquisition costs, stamp duty and 
legal costs) and is subject to a leaseback at GBP132,500 p.a. 
 
Lowestoft 
 
The store is based at 66 to 76 (even numbers) London Road North, Lowestoft. 
This was purchased at a cost of GBP850,000 (excluding acquisition costs, stamp 
duty and legal costs) and is subject to a leaseback at GBP75,000 p.a.  This 
property contains about 19,000 sq ft in the prime pedestrianised shopping 
position in the town, with many well-known multiple traders adjoining and 
nearby. 
 
Both the Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth properties are let on three year leases 
with a tenant's option for a further three years at a revised rent.  These are 
both department stores that have been trading in the area for over 100 years. 
 
These properties meet the Group's criteria in that there is good short-term 
income and substantial property value, and we feel that in the medium to 
long-term we can realise strong growth via potential alternative uses. 
 
Since we completed our purchases, Beales have taken assignment on both leases. 
Beales were previously in discussions with Palmers, but broke off discussions 
when the management buyout of Beales was being arranged and picked up these 
discussions again at a later stage and completed the assignment. 
 
We believe that the assignment is beneficial for the Panther Group as we 
obtained better security, plus there is a likelihood that Beales will aim to 
trade from these premises for more than the existing lease term. 
 
Purchase - Debenhams Department Store, Dumfries 
 
On 30 November 2018, we completed the purchase of a freehold of Debenhams 
Department Store in Dumfries for GBP1,100,000.  The property is relatively modern 
and contains 46,000 sq ft, with 15,000 sq ft of this being on the ground floor 
in a prime pedestrianised position.  The rental income is GBP350,000 pa and it 
has a lease that expires in 2037 with no breaks. 
 
Given the well-publicised issues this tenant is facing, the property could be 
considered to be slightly speculative, but if Debenhams were to fail, we 
believe we could divide up the property relatively easily and re-let, and still 
receive a high yield. 
 
Bumper year 
 
As mentioned in our interims, 2018 is likely to be the best year that the Group 
has ever experienced, in terms of real cash generated and realisations from 
sales of property.  As such we are proposing to celebrate this with another 
special dividend. 
 
A special dividend of 15p per share will be paid to shareholders on 17 January 
2019 (ex-dividend on 27 December 2018 to shareholders on the register on 28 
December 2018). 
 
In the light of the exceptional sales in the period and the prospects for the 
subsequent period, the Board will assess the opportunities available to the 
Group, but expects to pay a total of no less than 12p per share for the year 
ending 31 December 2018 (with 6p of this sum having already been paid on 29 
November 2018 as an interim dividend). 
 
Prospects 
 
Even with the additional pay outs for dividends, we remain in a strong position 
to weather uncertain economic conditions and have funds available to take 
advantage of investment opportunities for the long term benefit of our 
shareholders. 
 
For further information: 
 
Panther Securities plc:                               Tel: [phone] 
 
Andrew Perloff/ Simon Peters 
 
Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad and Joint              Tel: [phone] 
Broker) 
 
David Worlidge/ Alex Brearley 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)