Disposal of Brewery Site
Young & Co's Brewery PLC
03 August 2006
3 August 2006
Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C.
Disposal of Wandsworth Sites for £69 million
The Board of Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C. (the 'Company' or 'Young's')
announces that it has today exchanged contracts for the unconditional sale (the
'Disposal') of the Ram Brewery site and the nearby Buckhold Road offices in
Wandsworth, South West London (the 'Wandsworth sites') to Minerva plc
('Minerva').
The cash consideration for the Disposal is £69m made up as follows:
- a deposit of £14m payable today;
- £8.5m payable in June 2007, on completion of the sale of the Buckhold
Road site; and
- £46.5m payable in January 2008, on completion of the sale of the Ram
Brewery site.
All payments are unconditional and are guaranteed by Minerva plc, a company
listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
The net book value of the Wandsworth sites was £11.3m as at 1 April 2006 and
there are £13.4m of additional assets connected with the wholesaling activities
on these sites which will no longer be needed by the Company. Assuming
reinvestment of the Disposal proceeds, the Board expects that the taxable gains
on the Disposal should not be crystallised.
Excluded from the sale is the Brewery Tap public house, which is located on the
brewery site, in the heart of Wandsworth at the junction between Ram Street and
Wandsworth High Street. This is the site of the original 'Ramme Inn', the
origins of the brewery dating back to 1539.
In addition, Young's has entered into further agreements with Minerva providing
it with a right of first refusal, at not more than open market value, on the
lease or sale of:
- any part of the site that is to be used as a licensed property; and
- if suitable planning permission is received, up to 22,000sq ft of
office space on the Buckhold Road site.
The continuing Young's business:
Following the creation of Wells & Young's Brewing Company ('Wells & Young's')
and the Disposal, Young's will be operationally focused on its high quality
retail pub business.
Since the start of the current financial year, Young's has acquired 10 pubs,
with two further pubs scheduled for completion tomorrow and a third due to
complete on 7 August. These acquisitions represent an investment of £24.7m. Key
additions to the estate include the Fire Stables, Wimbledon, the Grange, Ealing,
Prince Alfred, Maida Vale, the Hand & Spear, Weybridge and the Crown & Anchor in
Chichester. Following these acquisitions, Young's will have 221 managed and
tenanted pubs in London and Southern England.
The Board believes that the Disposal, together with the creation of Wells &
Young's, will drive a step change in the Company's financial performance and
that the substantial amount of capital released over the next 18 months will
enable significant investment in the growth opportunities open to the Company.
The Board will evaluate the appropriate capital structure for the continuing
business and will take into account the extended period during which the
proceeds from the Disposal will be received. This evaluation will balance, at
the time the proceeds are received, the benefits of reinvestment in the business
with those of returning capital to shareholders.
Enquiries:
Young & Co.'s Brewery P.L.C.
Stephen Goodyear 0208 875 7000
Peter Whitehead
JPMorgan Cazenove
Roger Lambert 0207 588 2828
James Mitford
Hogarth Partnership
James Longfield 0207 357 9477
Georgina Briscoe
Sarah Richardson
JPMorgan Cazenove Limited, which is authorised by the Financial Services
Authority, is acting exclusively for Young's and no-one else in connection with
the transaction and will not be responsible to anyone other than Young's for
providing the protections offered to clients of JPMorgan Cazenove Limited or for
providing advice in relation to the transaction.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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