15th Dec 2006 11:15
Land Securities Group Plc15 December 2006 15 December 2006 Land Securities Group PLC ("Land Securities") LAND SECURITIES TO CONVERT TO REITAND RESULTS OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING Land Securities confirms that, following the Extraordinary General Meeting heldtoday, 15 December 2006, at which shareholders approved changes to its Articlesof Association, it will be taking the necessary steps for Land Securities andits subsidiaries (the "Group") to convert to a Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT") on 1 January 2007. This conversion will be effected by way of anotification letter to HM Revenue & Customs and will result in the payment of aconversion charge in July 2007. The conversion charge, which is expected to bein the order of £300m, will be 2% of the value of the Group's qualifyingproperty assets. In order to quantify the precise amount of the conversion charge, the Group willbe carrying out a valuation of the relevant assets as at 31 December 2006. Thiswill be a one-off exercise and will include an external valuation of both thequalifying properties held in the investment property business together with thequalifying properties held by Land Securities Trillium, representing the firstvaluation of these assets since Trillium was acquired in 2000. It isanticipated that the results of the valuation will be announced to shareholdersin February 2007. Commenting on the conversion, Francis Salway, Group Chief Executive of LandSecurities, said: "We are confident that our conversion to REIT status willbring benefits to shareholders in terms of the Group's tax efficiency and areexcited to be one of the first companies to take advantage of the newlegislation. We look forward to the increased dynamism this change will bringto the sector." Land Securities received valid proxies for the Extraordinary General Meeting inrespect of 270,109,027 shares. Votes in respect of 267,749,235 shares,representing over 99.1% of the shares subject to valid proxies, were cast infavour of the Resolution or left to the Chairman's discretion; votes in respectof 56,038 shares, representing 0.02% of the shares subject to valid proxies werecast against the Resolution; and votes in respect of 2,303,754 shares,representing 0.85% of the shares subject to valid proxies, were withheld. Copies of the Resolution passed at the Extraordinary General Meeting will beavailable shortly for inspection by the public during normal business hours onany weekday (except public holidays) at the UK Listing Authority's DocumentViewing Facility, which is situated at the Financial Services Authority, 25 TheNorth Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS (tel. +44 (0)20 7676 1000). -Ends- For further information please contact: Francis Salway / Emma Denne Land Securities Tel: + 44 (0)20 7024 5460 Stephanie Highett / Dido Laurimore Financial Dynamics Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113 For more information on Land Securities visit www.landsecurities.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Land Securities