1st Dec 2006 07:00
Grainger Trust PLC01 December 2006 1 December 2006 Grainger Trust plc ("Grainger"/the "Company") GRAINGER TRUST ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT HOMES OFFER Grainger Trust plc ("Grainger"), the UK's largest, quoted residential propertycompany, announces that Grainger Retirement Housing Limited ("GRHL"), a whollyowned subsidiary of Grainger, is making today an offer to shareholders of TheCapital Appreciation Trust (Isle of Man) plc ("CAT"), an offshore open endedinvestment company, for the acquisition of CAT. The offer is conditional, amongst other things, upon completion of a sharepurchase agreement between GRHL and Close Investments Limited relating to twoother companies, Close Property Management (Isle of Man) Limited and CloseProperty Management (Guernsey) Limited, which currently undertake propertymanagement and related activities for CAT and hold the title to many of theproperties beneficially owned by CAT. The offer price is 145.86 pence per share payable in cash, valuing CAT at£71.6m. The first closing date of the offer is 12 noon on 28 December 2006. CAT contains a portfolio of some 912 retirement properties, which are subject tolifetime leases or are currently vacant. The majority of the properties, whichconsist largely of one bedroom flats in complexes of retirement units, arelocated within McCarthy & Stone developments. The greatest concentrations ofproperties are in the South East (53.6%), the South West (31.2%) and East Anglia(10%). The remaining 5% of the portfolio is spread across England and Wales. The properties have an investment value of approximately £73.65m and certain netliabilities have been retained within CAT, amounting to some £1.5m. The existingIsle of Man resident directors of CAT will continue to work for the business. The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing as revaluation gains on theportfolio will be recognised under IFRS in the Income Statement. JPMorgan Cazenove is acting as sole financial adviser and corporate broker toGrainger. Commenting on the offer, Rupert Dickinson, Chief Executive of Grainger said: "This will be our first major acquisition in the increasingly importantretirement home sector and fits well with our existing home reversion business.We see good opportunities to use our existing skills and franchise in bothresidential property and equity release to grow this portfolio. We also want toinvestigate ways of introducing more flexible tenure into the retirement homesector through a range of options, from rental, lifetime lease, through toshared equity. We think it is now becoming as important to offer elderlyhomeowners flexibility in stepping off the housing ladder as it has become forfirst time buyers to get that first step up." Peter Couch, Director of Equity Release added: "This is a great opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio ofresidential properties occupied by elderly tenants. As with our existing homereversion business, the key business drivers will be house price inflation andlife expectancy of our tenants." Enquiries:Grainger Trust plc Andrew Cunningham 0191 261 1819Peter Couch 0191 261 1819 JPMorgan Cazenove Roger Clarke 020 7588 2828 Financial DynamicsStephanie Highett Dido Laurimore 020 7831 3113 JPMorgan Cazenove, which is regulated in the United Kingdom by the FinancialServices Authority, is acting for Grainger in connection with the offer and forno one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Grainger forproviding the protections afforded to clients of JPMorgan Cazenove, or forproviding advice in relation to the offer or any other matter. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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