30 September 2013
St Ives plc - Disposal
St Ives plc ("St Ives" or "the Group") announces that it has today sold St Ives
Direct Bradford Limited ("SIDB") to Cogent B2B Limited (the "Disposal"), as
part of its continuing strategy to refocus the Group's business. Total
consideration for the Disposal will be £8 million, comprising £3 million
payable immediately and £5 million of deferred consideration.
SIDB offers direct mail, digital printing and general commercial printing
capabilities to UK based customers. As at 27 July 2012, SIDB had gross assets
of £11.1 million and in the financial year ended 27 July 2012 generated £35.0
million of revenue and profit before tax of £1.2 million.
St Ives will retain the ownership of the property currently occupied by SIDB in
Bradford and will lease it to SIDB at a market rent.
The deferred consideration is repayable in 24 monthly instalments commencing on
1 November 2013, guaranteed by Cogent B2B Limited and secured over SIDB's
assets.
The Disposal is consistent with the Group's strategy of refocusing on marketing
services whilst moving away from the commoditised sectors of the print market.
SIDB has continued to experience tough trading conditions, where excess
capacity has exerted downward price pressure resulting in reduced levels of
profitability.
The net proceeds of the Disposal will be used to support further development of
the Group's business.
Patrick Martell, Chief Executive of St Ives, said:
"Following a fundamental realignment of our business, in which we have built a
substantial and broadly-based marketing services offering while moving away
from commoditised print, it is clear that SIDB no longer fits within our new
structure and will benefit from alternative ownership.
This effectively completes the exit from our non-core printing operations, and
allows us to focus wholly on strengthening our marketing services offering and
remaining print businesses, in line with our stated strategy."
- Ends -
For further information please contact:
St Ives plc 020 7928 8844
Patrick Martell, Chief Executive
Matt Armitage, Chief Financial Officer
MHP Communications 020 3128 8100
John Olsen / Giles Robinson
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.