1 Oct 2008 07:00
St. Modwen Properties PLC
Interim Management Statement for the period from 1st June to 30th
September 2008
St. Modwen Properties PLC is the UK's leading regeneration specialist
The residential land market remains virtually non existent. We do not expect this market to recover for some time, and are planning our business accordingly.
Cash management and cost control are the priorities at this time, and the necessary decisions are being taken to maintain the long term potential of the business and to ensure that we continue to operate within our banking covenants. Importantly, at the pre-tax level, excluding revaluations, we continue to operate profitably and to transact business.
Current Activity
During the period we have exchanged/completed more than 20 transactions, the principal ones being the sales of the 119-bed Premier Inn hotel at Trentham, Staffordshire and the 40,000 sq ft bulky goods retail park, incorporating a Homebase store at Runcorn.
Although we have scaled back our speculative construction programme to meet current market conditions, we are nevertheless continuing with a programme of pre-let or pre-sold developments, and have achieved a number of important milestones:
Stoke on Trent - The pre-let of an 80,000 sq ft call centre for Vodafone is now unconditional, and work has started on site on this and on two other buildings (pre-sold to Wades and to the Hanley Economic Building Society)
A presale of a 16,000 sq ft foodstore at Trentham has been agreed with Aldi
Dursley, Gloucestershire - The sale of 5.7 acres of serviced residential land to Bloors has now gone unconditional
Additionally, we continue to progress the marshalling of our future schemes, and have achieved planning consent for 103 homes and a Battle of Britain museum at Bentley Priory, one of the key sites in the MoDEL portfolio acquired from Defence Estates.
We are also actively seeking to add value to our portfolio through an enhanced asset management programme that has seen:-
The Hopper
In the present market we are obviously being very selective in the acquisition opportunities we pursue but where we see value, such as the Letchworth site reported on previously, we are willing to acquire. We are also pursuing a number of development agreement opportunities where the initial requirement is to put in our development skills rather than cash.
Outlook
The outlook for the property market, and indeed for the economy as a whole, continues to deteriorate. Results will continue to be disappointing until the property markets bottom and downwards revaluations cease. However, our confidence in the inherent value of the hopper and our ability to realize this through our marshalling efforts remains undiminished.
| ANTHONY GLOSSOP | BILL OLIVER |
| Chairman | Chief Executive |
1 October 2008
ENQUIRIES:
| St. Modwen Properties PLC | www.stmodwen.co.uk |
| Anthony Glossop, Chairman | ) |
| Bill Oliver, Chief Executive | ) 0121 222 9400 |
| Tim Haywood, Finance Director | ) |
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| College Hill | www.collegehill.com |
| Gareth David | 020 7457 2020 |