AGM Statement

RNS Number : 9980H

Christie Group PLC

14 June 2017

 

14 June 2017

Christie Group plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")

AGM Statement

Christie Group plc (CTG.L), the leading provider of Professional Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the leisure, retail and care markets, announces that at today's Annual General Meeting, the Chairman, Philip Gwyn, issued the following statement:

"As I advised in April at the time of the release of our 2016 results, 2017 started strongly. The announcement of a General Election did not deter business buyers, but the supply of businesses coming to market was somewhat constrained. Typically, business proprietors own their business on a long term basis and will therefore often understandably await major political outcomes before opting to sell.

Stock & Inventory Systems & Services

In Europe our retail stocktaking operation, Orridge, has secured significant new wins - including Telecom in Germany, Claire's Accessories and Hugo Boss - and has a full order book for the second half. In the UK, we supported Co-Op Food's sale of 300 stores to McColls by performing pre- sale and sale-day stocktakes, demonstrating our capability to carry out large-scale counts. Affirming the quality and accuracy of our services, the Superdrug and Savers brands will return exclusively to Orridge in the second half of the year.

Our hospitality and leisure stocktaking business, Venners, launched its Audit Hub as an online interface to our Health and Safety customers. We anticipate that food pricing inflation will bring increased emphasis by restauranteurs on quantified menu preparation and food sourcing and control.  New clients included Malmaison /Hotel Du Vin, Peach Pub Company, Route Organisation and Sam Smith's.

Vennersys, our online visitor attraction systems provider, has signed orders with Spa Valley, Leicester City Council, Chiltern Air Museum, William Memorial and others for go-live in H2. Existing sites have now virtually all been transferred to our new VENPos Cloud product with the small number remaining due to transfer in Q3. We are therefore on track to switch off our legacy system this year. We enjoy a strong conversion rate from enquiries to sales, confirming the attraction of our fully integrated system.

Professional Business Services

In the UK, we enjoyed continued demand for businesses in all our sectors. Illustrating this, we exchanged contracts on the sale of a group of seven pubs by Whitbread to Marstons for £12.5 million, we acted for Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., the American REIT, on their acquisition of Gold Care in a deal worth over £90 million and, also in the Care sector, for LRH to sell thirteen homes for over £70 million. In Childcare we sold the sixteen-strong Magic Nurseries portfolio to the leading French nursery group Le Petits Chaperons Rouges.

Elsewhere, our Medical team sold eleven pharmacies on behalf of Mid County Co-Op as well as fourteen for Lloyds Pharmacy as a result of the CMA judgement following its acquisition of Sainsbury's pharmacy estate. In Retail, we sold the chain of High Noon Stores to Euro Garages.

Our appraisal business, Pinders, was appointed as business valuers to the new Atom Bank. It enjoyed a record period for claims-related business advisory income and undertook an extensive Buildings Review of the Belfry for KSL Capital Partners.

Christiefinance.com is quickly being recognised as the 'go-to' resource for those looking to finance or refinance businesses in our sectors. Its continuing development sees it rank above many prime lenders in an internet search.

Summary

We anticipate recording a materially improved first-half over that seen in H1 2016, despite the interruption of the General Election. Looking forwards, we then foresee a stronger second half's trading than the first and therefore an improved result for the year as a whole."

Enquiries:

Christie Group plc

David Rugg                                                                                                                                           020 7227 0707

Chief Executive

Dan Prickett                                                                                                                                        020 7227 0700

Chief Financial Officer

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited:

Dominic Morley / Charles Leigh-Pemberton                                                                        020 7886 2906

Nominated Adviser & Broker

Notes to Editors:

Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services group with 45 offices across the UK, Europe and Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the leisure, retail and care sectors.

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional Business Services (PBS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PBS - Christie + Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.

Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long established reputation for offering essential services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.

For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.

 

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