Profit share resulting from sale by Fprop PDR

RNS Number : 4950I

First Property Group PLC

26 March 2015

 

Date:	26 March 2015
On behalf of:	First Property Group plc ("First Property", "the Company" or the "Group")
Embargoed:	0700hrs

First Property Group plc

Profit share resulting from sale by Fprop PDR

First Property Group plc (AIM: FPO), the property fund manager and investor, is pleased to announce that Fprop PDR, the partnership established with clients of Towers Watson in October 2013 to convert offices in the UK to residential use, has contracted to sell its remaining two properties.

First Property's profit share from these sales, including the profit earned from the Group's five per cent co-investment in the partnership, will amount to some £2.5 million. The completion of the sale of one property will take place in two parts, on 31 March 2015 and 31 July 2015 respectively. Completion of the latter of these two parts is subject to certain conditions precedent which the Group is confident of fulfilling. First Property's profit share of £2.5 million will accordingly be recognised in two parts as well: £1.5 million in the year to 31 March 2015, with the remainder in the year to 31 March 2016 subject to the fulfilment of the conditions precedent.

These sales bring the total number of properties sold by Fprop PDR to eight. Aggregate net profits earned by Fprop PDR from these sales amount to some £16 million on an un-geared investment of some £30 million, representing a return on equity invested of some 53 per cent and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 98 per cent per annum. First Property's total profit share from Fprop PDR to date, including from the sales announced above, amounts to some £4.8 million.

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For further information please contact:

First Property Group plc	Tel: [phone]
Ben Habib (Chief Executive & Chief Investment Officer) George Digby (Group Finance Director)	www.fprop.com
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 and investor with operations in the United Kingdom and Central Europe. Its earnings are derived from:

·     Fund management - via its FCA regulated and AIFMD approved subsidiary, First Property Asset Management Ltd (FPAM), which earns fees from investing for third parties in property in the UK and Central Europe (principally Poland);

·     Group Properties - principal investments by the Group, currently comprising:

o  6x directly owned properties in Poland and Romania;

o  5x properties in Poland held by Fprop Opportunities plc (FOP), an FPAM managed fund in which the Group is a 76.2% shareholder;

o  Shares in 4x funds managed by FPAM.

The investment performance of the Group's 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) over 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 and 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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