Gresham House has sold a large part of its site at Newton le Willows, Merseyside and announced interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2015.
25.8 acres of the site at Newton-le-Willows has been sold to Persimmon Homes Ltd. The transaction will realise a total of £7.25m net. A deposit and initial payment of £944,610 has been received and the balance will be receivable in three tranches over the next 42 months. The asset was being carried in the balance sheet at 31 December 2014 at a discounted value of £6.81m. In addition, Gresham House will be entitled to an overage payment in the event that Persimmon Homes Ltd achieves a selling price in excess of an agreed amount per square foot.
Gresham House retains a five acre site with retail planning permission contiguous to the site sold and will explore options for this site now the sale of the main residential site has been completed.
Following negotiations, it has been agreed that the facility with the Co-op Bank be reset at £2.85m after £428,000 of the initial proceeds from the sale have been applied in reducing the amount outstanding. The new arrangements have a two year term.
The half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2015 show a modest operating profit before tax of £52,000 compared with a loss of £2.5m for the same period last year, due primarily to a recovery in the value of the holding in SpaceandPeople. This represents earnings per share of 0.8p per ordinary share compared with a loss of 51.9p per ordinary share for the six months ended 30 June 2014. In due course, and as Gresham House evolves into a specialist asset manager, earnings will be the primary reference with respect to valuation. At this stage the net asset value per share has increased marginally from 298p at 31 December 2014 to 298.5p at 30 June 2015.
GHE : Gresham sells building site in Merseyside