Great Portland Estates PLC
21 August 2000
The following letter has been sent to the shareholders of Great Portland
Estates today.
To the holders of ordinary shares, and, for information only, to the holders
of options under the Great Portland Share Option Scheme
Dear Shareholder
At the Annual General Meeting held on 18th July I made the following
announcement:
'On 8 March 2000, the Board of Great Portland Estates P.L.C. ('Great Portland'
or the 'Company') announced a major strategic initiative to widen and
accelerate its property disposal programme and to use the proceeds to return
80 pence per share in cash to shareholders full details were provided in a
Circular to shareholders on 18 April. Two of the preconditions of the
capital reduction, through which the 80 pence per share payment was to be
effected, were met on 26 May when shareholders gave their approval to it, and
on 1 June when the 9.5% Convertible Unsecured Loan Stock 2002 was redeemed in
full.
Great Portland announces that it has now effected sales of £400 million in
aggregate, of which £179 million has been received and £221 million has been
exchanged, with completion due before the end of July. A further £20 million
of sales are in solicitors' hands. Accordingly, application has been made to
the Court, and the Petition Hearing is likely to be set for September. On
confirmation by the Court, the 80 pence per share will be paid approximately
two weeks after the Petition Hearing to shareholders on the register on the
day before it. As part of the capital reduction process, all existing shares
will be cancelled, and three new shares will be issued for every five
previously held.
The Company has obtained clearance from the Inland Revenue that the proposed
return of cash to shareholders will be treated as a capital receipt for UK
tax purposes.'
I am now pleased to report that we shall be applying to Court on 6th
September for sanction of the repayment of capital to shareholders and, in
the absence of unforeseen circumstances, I anticipate that the sum of 80
pence per ordinary share will be paid some two weeks thereafter to
shareholders registered at the close of business on 5th September.
Richard Peskin
Chairman
*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.