Disposal of Directly Owned Property

RNS Number : 8048M

First Property Group PLC

21 September 2012

 



Date:	21 September 2012
On behalf of:	First Property Group plc ("First Property", "the Company" or the "Group")
Embargoed for:	0700hrs

First Property Group plc

Disposal of Directly Owned Property  

First Property Group plc (AIM: FPO), the commercial property fund management group, is pleased to announce the sale of one of its two directly owned properties, an office building in Mokotow, Warsaw which it bought in November 2007. The sale proceeds amounted to PLN 11.95 million (£2.30 million) which after accounting for transaction costs and foreign exchange gains, resulted in a profit of approximately £120,000. The property, which was not geared, generated an internal rate of return (IRR) for the Group of 12.8% per annum during the period of our ownership.

The sale will not have a material bearing on the Group's earnings for the year to 31 March 2013.

Following the sale, the Group has one remaining direct property holding, being a 28% interest in Blue Tower, an office tower in the Central Business District of Warsaw.

The Group's cash position following this disposal, and the payment of the Group's final dividend of £833,000, amounts to some £11.5 million, of which £4.8 million is held by Fprop Opportunities plc (FOP), an investment company focused on Poland which is 84.1% owned by the Group, and £0.5 million is held by Corp SA, a property management company which is responsible for the management of Blue Tower and which is 68% owned by the Group. The Group intends to use this cash as co-investment equity to purchase additional assets in partnership with third party investors.

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For further information please contact:

First Property Group plc	Tel: [phone]
Ben Habib (Group Chief Executive & FPAM Chief Investment Officer)	www.fprop.com
Jeremy Barkes (Director, Business Development)	[e-mail]
Arden Partners	Tel: [phone]
Chris Hardie (Director Corporate Finance )
Redleaf Polhill	Tel: [phone]
George Parrett	[e-mail]

Notes to investors and editors:

First Property Group plc is a commercial property fund manager with operations in the United Kingdom and Central Europe. The Group's investment performance is ranked No.1 versus Investment Property Databank's (IPD) CEE universe over the three, four, five and six years to 31 December 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The business model of First Property Group is to:

·     Raise third party funds to invest in income producing commercial property;

·     Co-invest in these funds;

·     Earn fees for the management of these funds. Fees earned are a function of the value of assets under management as well as the performance of the funds;

·     Earn a return on its own capital invested in these funds.

First Property Asset Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Further information about the Company and its products can be found at: www.fprop.com.

 

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