Further re: Property Purchase

Lords Group Trading PLC

22 December 2023

 

22 December 2023

Lords Group Trading plc

('Lords', the 'Group' or the 'Company')

Further re: Property Purchase

On 12 January 2023 Lords announced that it had entered into binding agreements in respect of the purchase of the freehold property from which the Heathrow branch of the Group's wholly owned subsidiary George Lines Civils & Landscaping Merchants operates (the 'Property') from the original vendor of George Lines (the "Property Purchase").

The Property, which is situated close to Heathrow airport and covers an area of 1.52 acres including 5,570 square feet of covered storage, is considered by Lords to be prime industrial real estate from which the Heathrow branch of George Lines Civils & Landscaping Merchants is intending to continue to operate for the foreseeable future. The branch has been operating out of the site for more than 40 years.

As previously announced, the Company agreed the maximum consideration for the purchase of the Property was £6.26 million in cash, of which an initial £2.2 million was paid by the Group in January 2023.

The Company now announces that the parties have now agreed to an amended schedule for completion of the Property Purchase and for the payment by the Company of the remaining consideration payable such that the completion date will be extended from 5 July 2024 to 31 January 2025, with £0.9 million of the unchanged consideration payable in January 2024 and the balance payable on completion in January 2025.

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FOR FURTHER ENQUIRIES:

Lords Group Trading plc	Via Buchanan
Shanker Patel, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Chris Day, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Ben Jeynes / Dan Hodkinson (Corporate Finance)
Julian Morse / Henry Nicol (Sales)

Berenberg (Joint Broker) Matthew Armitt / Richard Bootle / Detlir Elezi	Tel: [phone]
Buchanan Communications	Tel: [phone]
Henry Harrison-Topham / Stephanie Whitmore / Abby Gilchrist	[e-mail]

Notes to editors:

Lords is a specialist distributor of building, plumbing, heating and DIY goods.  The Group principally sells to local tradesmen, small to medium sized plumbing and heating merchants, construction companies and retails directly to the general public.  The Group operates through the following two divisions:

·      Merchanting: supplies building materials and DIY goods through its network of merchant businesses and online platform capabilities.  It operates both in the 'light side' (building materials and timber) and 'heavy side' (civils and landscaping), through 31 locations in the UK.

·      Plumbing and Heating: a specialist distributor in the UK of plumbing and heating products to a UK network of independent merchants, installers and the general public. The division offers its customers an attractive proposition through a multi-channel offering.  The division operates over 17 locations enabling nationwide next day delivery service.

Lords was established over 35 years ago as a family business with its first retail unit in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.  Since then, the Group has grown to a business operating from 48 sites.  Lords aims to become a £500 million turnover building materials distributor group by 2024 as it grows its national presence.

Lords was admitted to trading on AIM in July 2021 with the ticker LORD.L. For additional information please visit www.lordsgrouptradingplc.co.uk.

 

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