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Hawtin PLC (AIM: HTI) the South Wales bases property investment company, announces that at its Annual General Meeting to be held later today, Richard Hayward, Chief Executive of Hawtin PLC, will make the following statement:
I would like to take this opportunity to update shareholders of current developments and to extend my thanks to those individuals and institutions that have supported Hawtin and the Board through some difficult times.
Since 20 May when the preliminary announcement was released, there have been some further advances in lettings and prospects of potential acquisitions. These amount to further development of elements that were referred to in the preliminary announcement but which should enhance the income stream of the Group: for instance, we are now in” legals” for the letting of Beechwood House and for 75% of the space at Aberaman. The latter has been vacant since we purchased it in 2007. These lettings reflect the hard work undertaken by our management team but also I hope a harbinger of recovery in the property market.
We have also sold 3 small components of the Holywell portfolio acquired only in February- these yielded relatively small income and were disproportionately management intensive. The sale was at a small margin over our original cost and generated £420,000 which has been used to reduce borrowings and our Loan to value deficit. There are some other disposals in the pipeline that with improve our loan to value further and potentially free up facilities.
Although we are working on a number of exciting acquisitions, it is too early to make any statements at this present time.
Readers of the accounts will see how much the current financial crisis has affected the results for 2008 both through he mark down of property values and the provision for the notional liability of our interest rate swaps. I won’t go into the background again at this point, but strongly believe that these are items of a timing nature only. I am pleased that our funders also recognise this and have supported us though the technical breach of facilities. We all know that the banking world has been hit badly and individuals within those organisations are working in difficult circumstances. I am pleased to say that the individuals that manage the Hawtin accounts have managed to stay strong in our support and continue to work with us to build the business. On behalf of the shareholders, I would like to thanks them all.
Millennium Plaza: This time last year I spent some time explaining the development opportunities being explored at our large leisure site in the centre of Cardiff. At that time I would have hoped to be reporting this year the outcome of a number of changes being contemplated. Our plans remain intact although the timing has slipped as tenants have struggled against economic conditions and business confidence. Without going into great detail, the redevelopment of the ground floor and basement is still in process and the contractors ready to effect the structural changes. The redevelopment of the upper floors is still the ultimate goal and the path to maximum realisation of the investment potential of the Plaza. We must wait however until the lower floor configuration is complete and economic conditions allow development funding.
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