Troubled property investment company Warner Estate Holdings’s net asset value per share fell from a negative 20p per share to a negative 91p per share in the year ended 30 March. The group reported a pre-tax loss of £38m for the period.
Warner Estate pushed ahead with asset disposals during the year, including 16 Upper Woburn Place, WC1, for £18.1m, and buildings on Wingate Road in Luton and St Mary’s Road in Sheffield, for £4m each, in order to pay off debts. The group remains in talks with lenders over debts maturing on 31 December 2012, but there is “uncertainty as to what will happen after that date”, according to the a company statement.
Chairman Philip Warner said: “Following the disposal of the group’s property assets and satisfactory arrangements being reached with the lenders, including the release of certain security, the group will continue as an asset management business. Initially, this would be based on the asset management contracts for the Ashtenne Industrial Fund and Apia Regional Offices Fund.
“Achieving the release of the security over the asset management business is fundamental and the continuing viability of the asset management business is dependent on the timing and quantum of management fee income and the implementation of further cost savings.”
sophia.furber@estatesgazette.com
