THW Daniel Thwaites PLC

 
TIDMTHW 
 
DANIEL THWAITES PLC 
 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 
 
The Annual General Meeting, which was a closed meeting due to the Governments 
restrictions around public gatherings, was held at 12 noon on Wednesday, 30 
September 2020. 
 
The results of the resolutions proposed at the meeting were as follows: 
 
Resolution 1 - To re-elect Oscar Yerburgh as a director - 99.79% in favour 
 
Resolution 2 - To re-appoint BDO as auditors and authorise the directors to 
determine their remuneration - 99.54% in favour 
 
Resolution 3 - To renew the authority given to the directors to allot shares - 
99.62% in favour 
 
Resolution 4 - To disapply the pre-emption rights provision - 98.36% in favour 
 
Resolution 5 - Authority for the Company to make market purchases of its own 
ordinary shares - 99.56% in favour 
 
Questions: 
 
A number of questions were submitted to the Company and these and the Company's 
responses are detailed below: 
 
Q. The Company's AGM Statement and Covid-19 Update mentions the "tremendous 
support for our tenanted pubs".  However, with the exception of April the 
Company has continued to charge full rents to tenants despite the pubs being 
closed and more recently trading at only a fraction of pre lockdown levels. 
This is in contrast to many other regional brewers. The Company's tenants do 
not feel they have been supported by the Company as you claim.  Does the 
Company have any plans to write off any of these rents and what plans does the 
Company have to support tenants if there is a further lockdown? 
 
A. We have sought to balance the interests of both the company and the tenanted 
pubs over the period since 1 April. In this, we have tried to be fair and 
reasonable on a case by case basis regarding tenanted pub rent, from full rent 
relief in some cases to assessing the level of government grant in others. This 
means that on average in the year to date rent concessions of approximately 50% 
have been in place. If needed the company stands ready to support its pubs over 
the winter period. 
 
Q. Will the Board do all in its power to rebalance the debt on pension payments 
caused by this years pause within a fixed number of financial years and record 
commitment there to? 
 
A. The company took a brief contribution holiday for three months whilst the 
effects of lockdown and the need to conserve cash became clearer. The sums 
saved will be paid back over time. 
 
Q. Would you consider moving your share listing to a more closely followed 
index, such as AIM? 
 
A. We have looked at moving the listing to AIM, but do not believe that the 
additional costs warrant such a move at this time. 
 
Q. Can you please provide an update on your former brewery in Blackburn. What 
is your strategy for the site? Over what timeframe do you expect redevelopment 
to happen? Do you expect to redevelop it yourselves, partner with an 
experienced developer or sell it on as a shovel ready site once the planning 
permissions are in place? 
 
A. The former brewery site in Blackburn has been demolished, we are now 
actively marketing the site for redevelopment by a third party. 
 
Q. What steps can you take to further de-risk the defined benefit pension 
scheme? 
 
A. We have looked at all options to de-risk the final salary scheme including 
investment strategy, buyout, Pension Increase Exchange and Enhanced Transfer 
Values, we review these options on an ongoing basis. 
 
Q. Your term loan carries a high average fixed rate of 7.02% per annum and runs 
to December 2025. Could you refinance this at a more advantageous rate? 
 
A. The directors have considered refinancing the fixed rate debt embedded in 
the Company's Capital Structure and do not believe that it is in the best 
interests of the shareholders to refinance this at this moment in time. 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 01, 2020 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

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