Disposal - Somerset House, Birmingham

RNS Number : 3884H

Circle Property PLC

23 November 2022

 

23 November 2022

Circle Property Plc

("Circle", the "Company" or the "Group")

Disposal - Somerset House, Birmingham

Circle Property Plc (AIM: CRC), announces, in line with its disposal strategy, that it has exchanged contracts on the sale of Somerset House, Temple Street, Birmingham ("Somerset House"), a refurbished city centre, mixed use property, to Somerset Land and Property Ltd, at a sale price of £15.18 million. Completion is expected by the end of February 2023.

Somerset House comprises approximately 38,805 sq ft of office space let to BE Group Limited and 10,956 sq ft of leisure accommodation let to Las Iguanas Limited and Camerons Brewery Limited, with two leases of approximately 13 years to expiry and total rent passing of approximately £1.2 million per annum. Somerset House was acquired by the Group in January 2016 for approximately £7.75 million and the profit before tax for the year ended 31 March 2022 attributable to Somerset House was £0.507 million. The sale price of £15.18 million represents a 96% uplift on initial purchase price, but a decrease of 16.1% on the 31 March 2022 valuation of £18.1 million. The sale price is reflective of the reduction in valuations being seen across the wider UK commercial property market at present and yield shift.

As previously announced, the Company repaid the amount outstanding under its debt facility in full and is debt free. The net proceeds from disposals, following completion, will be held as Group cash and the Board expects that a minimum of two returns of capital will be made to shareholders, the first of which is expected to occur by March 2023. The Company's current cash balance (following completion of the previously announced disposals of (i) buildings K1 and K2 at Kents Hill Business Park, Kents Hill, Milton Keynes, (ii) Cheltenham House, Temple Street, Birmingham and (iii) Elizabeth House, London Road, Staines) is £23.8 million.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended and supplemented from time to time.

Circle Property Plc	[phone]
John Arnold, CEO Edward Olins, COO
Cenkos Securities plc	[phone]
Katy Birkin Mark Connelly Radnor Capital Joshua Cryer Iain Daly	[phone]
Camarco	[phone]
Ginny Pulbrook Toby Strong

 

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