Trading Update

Queen's Walk Investment Limited 30 March 2007 30 March 2007 Queen's Walk Investment Limited ('Queen's Walk') Trading Update - Withdrawal of Dividend Target Guidance Queen's Walk intends to publish its accounts for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2007 in mid-June. In the 6 March 2007 announcement of its results for the quarter ended 31 December 2006, the Company noted the impact on its investment portfolio of the market discount rates and implied cumulative loss rates that were being observed in the US sub-prime market and changes to borrower prepayment patterns in the UK market. Market volatility has been sustained and the Company's investment manager, Cheyne Capital Management (UK) LLP ('Cheyne Capital') continues to observe changing loss and prepayment behaviour in these markets. Current market conditions have made it considerably more difficult for the Company to ascribe a fair value to its investments, as market movements have been driven not only by changes to loss or prepayment assumptions but also by the market simply attributing a higher discount rate to mortgage-backed investments. The Company has observed that several markets are pricing implied losses at levels substantially higher than historical averages, with little or no consistency between the cash and synthetic markets and market indices. The distinction between pricing assumptions and changes in discount factors is a particularly important one in the case of Queen's Walk, as a change to loss or prepayment assumptions on the Company's investments (as opposed to market discount factors that have no impact on projected cash flows) will affect the effective yield recognised for a particular asset. Changes to the effective yield of an asset will have an impact on the distributable profits of the Company This impact is exacerbated by the fact that the Company's accounting policy requires any changes to effective yield to be corrected (or 'caught up') in the current period for all prior periods. Consequently, even in circumstances where the value of an asset remains relatively stable over its life, changes to the effective yield for that asset recorded in any given quarter can have a disproportionate impact on the distributable profit of the Company for that quarter (particularly where effective yields are changed on assets that have been held for some time). The Company is thus subject to potentially significant swings in distributable profits, and the dividends it can pay out of those profits, where it makes changes to loss and prepayment assumptions. In the 6 March announcement, the Company noted that increased discount rates and implied future cumulative loss rates had been observed in the US sub-prime market and that these increased rates might have a material adverse effect on the valuation of the Company's US assets for the quarter ended 31 March 2007. The Company also stated, however, that it did not expect that any significant adjustments would need to be made to distributable profits or the amount of future dividends as a result of valuation adjustments to its US investments (which account for approximately 12% of the investment portfolio). Since the time of that announcement, there has been a significant further increase in market projected cumulative loss rates for US sub-prime mortgage loans. Although these market implied loss rates are higher than loss rates currently being observed on the Company's US assets or which have been observed historically, the Company has decided to increase its cumulative loss assumptions on US assets in order to reflect these higher market expectations. While Cheyne Capital continues to evaluate developments in the US sub-prime market, it has determined that the adjustment of assumptions to current market projections and the impact of these adjustments on income recognised in respect of the Company's US investments in prior periods may have a material adverse impact on the Company's distributable profits for the quarter ended 31 March 2007. The Company also noted in the 6 March announcement that performance data received in respect of UK investments had reflected an upturn in prepayment rates by borrowers whose mortgages had reverted from discounted rates to fully-indexed mortgage interest rates. It was noted that Cheyne Capital was continuing to assess the impact of this prepayment activity and its impact on the effective yield and valuation of particular assets. For this reason, the Company provided a range for its dividend target for the quarter ended 31 March 2007. Given the continued uncertainty with respect to borrower prepayment behaviour in the UK, Cheyne Capital believes that further adjustments will be required to its prepayment assumptions and the effective yields that have been booked for the Company's UK investments. These adjustments are likely to further reduce the Company's distributable profits for the quarter ended 31 March 2007. For these reasons, the Company is withdrawing its dividend target of €0.22 to €0.25 per share for the quarter ended 31 March 2007 and its dividend target of not less than €1.00 for the financial year ended 31 March 2008. The Company will revisit dividend guidance and whether it is in a position to provide further guidance on target dividends going forward in the course of finalising its results for the financial year ended 31 March 2007. As noted above, to the extent the market value of an asset is driven by changes to loss or prepayment assumptions, this will give rise to an adjustment that affects distributable profits. To the extent the market value is driven by market discount rates that have no impact on projected cash flows, the valuation adjustment will have no impact to distributable profits but will reduce the net asset value of the Company. Anticipated changes to the valuation of the Company's US assets and certain assets in its UK investment portfolio may have a material adverse impact on the Company's net asset value, which was €9.90 per share as 31 December 2006. However, the shares of Queen's Walk are already trading at a significant discount to the net asset value of the Company as at that date. The Company is continuing its efforts to seek the approval of shareholders, in accordance with the 'whitewash' procedures of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the 'Code'), to effect repurchases of shares in circumstances where, as a result of such repurchases, the holdings of Cheyne ABS Opportunities Funds LP (which holds 44.1% of the Company's shares) and parties deemed by the Code to be acting in concert with it may increase. While Company is seeking to obtain this approval as soon as possible, there may be a delay in the Company's ability to deliver the requisite information circular to shareholders if the Company's accounts for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2007 are required to be included in that circular. Until the Company obtains this approval, Cheyne Capital will seek to manage the Company's investment portfolio with this objective in mind. There will be a conference call for investors at 2pm London time today. It can be accessed by dialling +44 (0)20 7138 0819 or +1 718 354 1361 from the US ten minutes prior to the scheduled call; please reference Queen's Walk Investment Limited Trading Update. A replay of the call will be available for two weeks from today by accessing +44 (0)20 7806 1970 or +1 718 354 1112 from the US using passcode 9674937#. For further information please contact: Investor Relations: Caroline Villiers +44 20 7153 1521 Cheyne Capital: Andrea Bonafe +44 20 7031 7480 About the Company: Queen's Walk Investment Limited is a Guernsey-incorporated investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Company's investment objective is to preserve capital and to provide stable returns to shareholders in the form of quarterly dividends. To achieve this, Queen's Walk invests primarily in a diversified portfolio of subordinated tranches of asset backed securities, including the unrated 'equity' or 'first loss' residual income position typically retained by the banks or other financial institutions which have originated the loan assets that collateralise a securitisation transaction. The Company makes such investments where its investment manager, Cheyne Capital Management (UK) LLP, considers the coupon or cashflows from the investment to be attractive relative to the credit exposure of the underlying asset collateral. The Company believes that its investment focus provides equity investors with exposure to a relatively new investment opportunity in this asset class. The content of this announcement includes statements that are, or may be deemed to be, 'forward-looking statements'. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms 'believes', 'estimates', 'anticipates', 'expects', 'intends', 'may', 'will' or 'should'. They include the statement regarding the target aggregate dividend. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The Company's actual results and performance may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, except as may be required by applicable law and regulation (including the Listing Rules). Any target dividends are based on certain assumptions as to future events, which may not prove to be realised. Due to the uncertainty surrounding these future events, the targets are not intended to be and should not be regarded as profits or earnings forecasts. There can be no assurance that these targets will be achieved or that the Company will be able to pay dividends at the target levels or at all. The payment of any target dividends is subject to the Company generating sufficient profits or having sufficient retained earnings and there can be no assurance that this will be the case. Any target dividends that the Company may announce from time to time should not be regarded as providing any guidance regarding the level of the Company's distributable net income for any period. The Company may revise its dividend policy from time to time. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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