8th Apr 2005 12:00
Crest Nicholson PLC08 April 2005 8th April 2005 Annual General Meeting Announcement Crest Nicholson PLC, the residential and mixed use development company, todayholds its Annual General Meeting. Commenting today, John Matthews, Chairman, said:- "After a slow start in November and December, the first three months of 2005have seen the return of a more normal housing market. While visitors and netreservations are less buoyant than in the exceptionally strong opening months of2004, our housing business continues to perform satisfactorily. We continue to make good progress bringing land into our short term land bank,which had a developed sales value of £3.31bn at 31 October 2004, comprising£2.89bn for 15,060 housing units and £418m for 1.8m square feet of commercialspace. Since then we have contracted 1,175 housing units and 273,000 sq ft ofcommercial space which are now included in our short term land bank, with anexpected average unit developed sales value broadly equivalent to our year enddevelopment portfolio. This includes our urban regeneration schemes at CamberleyTown Centre and Bath Western Riverside Phase I. In addition to the contracted short term land bank, we have a pipeline of agreedprojects not yet contracted of 5,190 housing units and 878,000 sq ft ofcommercial space. This pipeline also has an expected average unit developedsales value broadly equivalent to our year end development portfolio. Thispipeline includes our urban regeneration schemes at Oakgrove (Milton Keynes),Penarth Heights, Aylesbury Town Centre and Phases II and III of Bath WesternRiverside. Overall, the short term land bank and agreed pipeline (before deducting currentyear sales) now comprises 21,425 units. In addition to the above, at 31 October 2004 we controlled 13,182 strategic landplots with a book cost of £9.3m. The strategic land bank contains a mix ofoptions at discounts to open market value and some historic freehold purchasesand continues to offer good prospects for conversion to the short term landbank. Our track record in bringing land through from strategic to the short term landbank is good. Over the last five years, 38% of additions to the short term landbank per annum originated from our strategic land bank. As at 31 October 2004,44% of the units in the short term land bank originated from strategic landbuying. Currently there are three strategic sites of around 170 acres in all containingan estimated 2,800 plots which are either included or recommended by a planninginspector for inclusion in a draft local plan. These sites have an averagediscount of 31% on Crest estimates of their future land value. We have established our track record in the master planning and delivery oflarge-scale, sustainable residential and mixed-use developments. Our expertisein the growing urban regeneration market is creating substantial opportunitiesfor the Group. The Building for Life Gold Standard which we were delighted toreceive from CABE for Zone 1 of our urban regeneration scheme at Park Central,Birmingham helps strengthen our position in this important growth market. Our market position in both traditional and urban regeneration schemes and thequality of our short term and strategic land banks offer our shareholdersexcellent prospects for future growth and increased value." Enquiries to: Crest Nicholson PLC Brunswick Group LLP John Callcutt, Chief Executive Andrew FenwickStephen Stone, Chief Operating Officer Kate MillerPeter Darby, Finance Director Robert GardenerTel: 020 7404 5959 (on day of announcement) Tel: 020 7404 5959Tel: 01932 847272 (thereafter) This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Crest Nicholson