Helical Bar has announced a special dividend to shareholders of £30m, following a string of highly profitable deals.
The dividend will mean that chief executive Mike Slade (pictured) will receive just over £3m for his 10.08% stake in the company.
Helical Bar recently made proceeds of over £50m on the sale of a 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) office development at 3 Bunhill Row, EC2, and 34,000 sq ft (3,158 sq m) of office investments in EC3 and Hammersmith, and on a 65,000 sq ft (6,038 sq m) pre-funded office development at 200 Hammersmith Road.
The profits will be translated into a special dividend of 100p per share, which will be paid out on the 26 April 2002. The special dividend will not effect the final dividend for the year ending 31 March 2002, which is expected to be above 8.25p per share.
Chairman John Southwell said: “In the 18 years since Helical became a property company we will have returned over £107m in dividends and share buybacks to shareholders raising less than £41m from them along the way.
“Our share price has moved from 4p in 1984 to 817.5p today and our market capitalisation from £0.6m to over £240m.”
He added: “The company will continue to concentrate on high-margin business seeking to maximise growth in assets per share using a recurring stream of development and trading profits to build up the investment portfolio. Where these profits are not required by the business they will be distributed to shareholders.”
Helical Bar last issued a special dividend in 1999, which saw Slade pocket £3m for his 10% stake in the company.
The dividend will also give financial director Nigel McNair Scott just over £600,000 for his 2.09% stake and development director Gerald Kaye will receive £300,000.
EGi News 19/03/02
