If the way in which some properties, particularly in the West End, are being repeatedly traded has begun to seem like a game of pass the parcel then, in corporate terms, Centrovincial Estates is also becoming something of a hot property.
A year ago this month the company announced that it was in takeover talks “with an unnamed party”. By April it had been acquired by Nigel Wray’s Gilbert House Investments (which also later took over merchant bankers Singer & Friedlander) in an agreed £48.5m bid at a premium of 8% to net assets.
Now it is the turn of Irvine Sellar’s Ford Sellar Morris. He has conditionally agreed to pay Singer & Friedlander, as the enlarged group has become, around £45m cash for Centrovincial of which £12m will be financed by an issue of 14.5m new shares. The remainder will be financed by bank borrowing. The shares are being issued at 83p each and will be available at 0.49 new ordinary shares per share held.
Since Gilbert House/Singer & Friedlander took over at Centrovincial some properties have been sold. It now holds 21 properties, spread throughout the country but concentrated in London and the South East.
Centrovincial’s net tangible assets were worth £49m on December 31, since when a £9.4m dividend has been paid. In the nine months to the end of the year rents receivable were £6.9m and dealing profits were £2.6m. Pre-tax profit was £5.3m. On the current investment portfolio the rent roll is £3.8m. Since December 31 nine more properties have been sold, or contracts exchanged, bringing in £4.7m.
Ford Sellar Morris, which was formed when Irvine Sellar’s Sellar Morris Developments acquired retailer Martin Ford, has been looking for an investment portfolio to complement its retail development activities for some time.
It will sell some of the Centrovincial property in the short term in order to reduce gearing. However, one of the gems in the Centrovincial portfolio that Mr Sellar (left) will not be selling is the site that it had assembled in Worcester for a 154,000-sq ft shopping scheme, which had an end of value of £30m when Centrovincial submitted a detailed application in July 1986.
The year so far has been good for Ford Sellar Morris and interim results for the 12 months to January 30, issued with news of the acquisition, show that a £2.2m loss made in the 14 months to January 31 last year has been turned into a £2m profit. Earnings per share have reached 5.55p (-14.21p) and a 1p dividend is to be paid.
