Acquisition/Board Changes/EGM
April 10 2003 - 2:01AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:8612J
Propan Homes PLC
10 April 2003
Propan Homes plc ("Propan" or "the Company")
Acquisition of Honeygrove Holdings Limited, Board Changes, Change of Name and
Notice of EGM
Highlights:
* Propan acquires Honeygrove Holdings Ltd
* Enlarged Group to change its name to Honeygrove Group plc
* New Deputy Chairman, Non-Executive Director and Operating Director
Propan Homes plc, the AIM listed residential property developer, has entered
into a conditional contract to acquire leading South East based builders and
developers Honeygrove Holdings Limited ("Honeygrove"). In return for 21 million
new Propan shares and up to #2 million in cash, of which #1,737,320 will be paid
via loan notes on Admission with a further #250,000 of loan notes conditionally
deferred which may or may not be issued, Propan will acquire the entire issued
share capital of Honeygrove. The deal represents a further step in the
development of Propan into a broadly based property development and investment
company.
Operating principally in West Kent, Surrey and East Sussex, Honeygrove has a
reputation of developing high-quality new and refurbished homes, as well as
prestigious architectural restoration. It has an experienced management team
including Jeremy Streeten and John Low, who will join the board of Propan as
Deputy Chairman and Non-Executive Director respectively and David Rivers, who
will continue with the new Enlarged Group as Operating Director.
Honeygrove's last audited accounts for the year ended 30 September 2001 report a
pre-tax loss of #627,010 (2000: profit of #1,074,482) on turnover of #12,863,013
(2000: #11,957,116). Net assets at 30 September 2001 were #1,855,739.
Propan's CEO, Chris Johnson said: "This is a major step forward in the
development of Propan Homes plc. Over the past few years, Honeygrove has won a
spectacular 21 awards for its building and development work, including the '
Evening Standard Best Apartment' award and 'House Beautiful Best Luxury House'
award. Through this acquisition we aim to maximise new opportunities by
combining Honeygrove's expertise and contacts with our already proven business
model. The two groups have very strong synergies through which we expect to
enhance shareholder value.
"The acquisition should almost double our turnover and we expect to see scope
for substantial improvement in the margins for the enlarged group. Our strategy
of outsourcing development has proved successful, so our aim is to combine this
with Honeygrove's superb development team and concentrate on generating
profits."
Honeygrove's Chairman, Jeremy Streeten, said: "We are very excited about the
deal and believe that the team at Propan will help further build on the
successes that we have previously had. We founded our business on the belief
that there will always be a demand for excellence in the development sector and
firmly believe that this deal will help us continue providing high quality
development projects in the South East."
Propan is posting a Circular to shareholders with details of the acquisition and
a notice convening an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held at 10 a.m. on 29
May 2003. At the EGM, shareholders will also be asked to approve the change of
the Company's name to Honeygrove Group plc. In addition, Propan has also decided
to change its financial year end to 30 September with immediate effect.
The Company will apply for admission of the 21 million consideration shares to
trading on AIM and it is expected that dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 2
June 2003. The Consideration Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with
the existing ordinary shares in issue.
Enquiries:
Chris Johnson Propan Homes Plc Tel: 01732 743 393
Hugo de Salis St Bride's Media & Financial Tel: 020 7242
4477
Jeremy Porter Seymour Pierce Tel: 020 7648 8700
Notes:
Jeremy Streeten
A Cambridge graduate (Engineering and Economics) experienced in senior
management, general engineering, construction and refurbishment. Commissioned
into the Royal Engineers in 1964, he served for 23 years before retiring in
1987. After 18 months as Chief Executive in a manufacturing company, he set up
his own restoration business in June 1989 before founding Honeygrove Properties
Ltd later that year.
David Rivers
A graduate engineer with wide-ranging design and project management experience
in public service and industry. After an initial spell in civil engineering, he
served for five years as an officer in the Royal Engineers undertaking several
construction and renovation projects. Following a year as an operations manager
in industry, he joined Honeygrove Properties Ltd on its inception as its project
manager.
John Low
John has over 40 years experience in the housebuilding and construction
industry. He was Chief Executive of Beazer Group plc, one of the largest
housebuilders in the UK, and has held senior positions within the Trafalgar
House Group as Chairman of Trafalgar House Europe and chief executive officer of
their housebuilding company Ideal Homes. He has also held numerous industry
positions including Chairman of the Major Homebuilders Group and Chairman of the
New Homes Marketing Board. John is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Weeks
Group plc, the AIM listed consultancy and materials testing house.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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