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Disposal of Freehold Property

28th Dec 2011 07:00

RNS Number : 6345U
21st Century Technology PLC
28 December 2011
 

28 December 2011

21st Century Technology plc

 

("21st Century" or "the Company")

 

Disposal of Freehold Property

 

21st Century, the supplier and installation service provider of public transport CCTV and vehicle monitoring systems, today announces that it has exchanged contracts for the sale of its freehold head office premises in Drake Road, Mitcham, Surrey to Byrne Group plc ("the Purchasers") for cash consideration of £2,350,000. The Purchasers have paid a deposit of £235,000 and the balance will be payable on the agreed completion date of 6 January 2012.

 

The property, which is mortgage free, was disclosed in the Company's last unaudited interim accounts released on 19 July 2011 at a carrying value of £2,592,000. These accounts also included a provision for deferred tax on the property revaluation surplus. The Board believe that the write back of surplus deferred tax provision will eliminate the book loss on the property disposal.

 

Following the disposal of the Company's legacy distribution businesses at the end of 2009, the head office site has been significantly underutilised and the Company has been marketing the property for sale since that time. The Company intends to move to more suitable leasehold premises in the Croydon area but in the meantime has agreed a short term leaseback of the Drake Road premises from the Purchasers.

 

In a trading update on 13 December 2011, the Company announced that it no longer has any bank debt and its cash balance at 30 November 2011 stood at £2,700,000. The net proceeds from the disposal of the property will be added to the existing cash reserves and applied to finance investment in future business development opportunities. The Board will also give consideration to the payment of a special dividend once the Company's full year results to 31 December 2011 are finalised and if the Board believes at that time that the payment of a dividend would be in the best interests of the Company.

 

Commenting on the property disposal, 21st Century's Chairman, Jan Holmstrom, said:

 

"I am delighted that we have exchanged contracts for the sale of the Drake Road premises which were no longer suitable for our needs and an uneconomic base for our current business. Our plan is to relocate within nine months and remain in the locality therefore we do not anticipate any staff retention issues.

 

"We maintain our strategy to create and enhance shareholder value through organic growth, performance improvement and corporate activity where opportunities arise. With cash reserves significantly boosted by the property sale, we are looking forward to the New Year with confidence."

 

Ends

 

For Further Information: 

 

21st Century Technology plc 

Wilson Jennings 

020 8710 4016 

Finance Director 

MHP Communications Ltd

Barnaby Fry 

020 3128 8100 

Vicky Watkins

079 4000 5979

Daniel Stewart & Co plc

Nomad

Paul Shackleton

020 7776 6550 

Noelle Greenaway

Corporate Broking

Sean Lunn

Martin Lampshire

Company website

www.21stplc.com

 

 

 

Notes to editors:

 

21st Century Technology plc (AIM: C21), a leading supplier of public transport CCTV and other monitoring systems, was admitted to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange, in 2005.

 

21st Century is the preferred supplier of on-board CCTV systems for Arriva UK Bus, the Go-Ahead Group in the UK and FirstGroup UK Bus.

The Company has pioneered the use of WiFi with on-board CCTV systems and Transport for London commissioned the Company to undertake a trial of 'LiveView' - a system which transmits live CCTV pictures from on board the bus to a public transport and police control centre. 21st Century was also the first company to successfully launch Automatic Video Downloads and a bus CCTV monitoring system (HeartbeatTM) which allow the CCTV manager to remotely download CCTV footage from the bus to his computer and check that all the CCTV systems fitted to his buses are fully operational, without leaving his desk. The company's overhead camera passenger counting device, known as Passenger Analysis System ("PAS"), links to the ticket machine and enables bus operators to analyse specific bus route ticket sales and passenger numbers.

21st Century's EcoManager product has made a significant contribution to sales since its launch in July 2008. The EcoManager black-box system is aimed at reducing fuel and maintenance costs, reducing emissions and improving safety for bus operators by monitoring individual driving styles. Following a successful trial, in April 2009, Arriva UK committed to install the device on all their new buses and to retrofit a large proportion of their existing fleet. In November 2009 Arriva North West and Merseytravel won the industry recognised Alexander Dennis Award for Innovation following their installation of the EcoManager system which yielded fuel savings of up to 12%, associated CO2 emission reductions and a 62% reduction in accidents. This was followed in 2010 with a driver safety award for EcoManager presented by the road safety charity, Brake and in 2011, Arriva Wirral was presented with the Environmental Award by Wirral Investment Network in recognition of the environmental benefits achieved by the company as a result of the installation of EcoManager to its fleet of buses. For further information go to www.getecomanager.com.

 

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
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