New investment in Poland by the Group

RNS Number : 9756Z

First Property Group PLC

17 December 2014

 



Date:	17 December 2014
On behalf of:	First Property Group plc ("First Property", "the Company" or the "Group")
Embargoed:	0700hrs

First Property Group plc

New investment in Poland by the Group

First Property Group plc (AIM: FPO), the property fund management group, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the entire issued share capital in two special purpose vehicles ("SPVs") which own two office buildings in Poland. One of the office buildings is located in central Warsaw and the other in the northern part of the Tri-City region of Poland.

The SPVs were acquired from the USS Fprop Managed Property Portfolio LP, a fund managed by First Property Asset Management Ltd (FPAM). For the year to 31 March 2013, being the last audited accounts available for the SPVs acquired, they earned a net profit of some £1.35 million in aggregate.

At the time of purchase the SPVs had borrowings of some £59.5 million (€75 million). This debt is held in the SPVs and is non-recourse to the Group.

The price, which was paid in cash, to acquire the entire issued share capital in the two SPVs, was £3.9 million (€4.9 million). The investments are expected to yield a contribution to the profit before tax of the Group of some £3 million (€3.8 million) on an annualised basis. They are expected to yield a contribution of some £840,000 (€1.06 million) to the profit before tax of the Group for the period to 31 March 2015.

Following these two investments the Group now has six direct property holdings, three of which are in Poland and the other three of which are in Romania.

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

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

Notes to investors and editors:

First Property Group plc is a property fund manager with operations in the United Kingdom and Central Europe. Its business model is to:

·     Raise and manage third party funds to invest in commercial property;

·     Co-invest in these funds and thereby earn a return on its own capital invested; and

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

The investment performance of its funds under management in Poland and in Central Europe is ranked No.1 versus the Investment Property Databank (IPD) universe for Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) for the eight years to 31 December 2013, having previously ranked No.1 versus the IPD CEE universe over the three, four, five, six and seven years to 31 December 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 respectively.

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

 

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