Cleveland Trust is buying a 75% stake in the Port of Boston for £465,000 – paid for via a share issue at 90p. A placing for cash of 941,796 new shares, also at 90p a share, will refinance the port, which will be managed by Sutcliffe Holdings. It also retains the 25% balance in the company. The port of Boston, in Lincolnsire, was privatised six years ago; last year it made a loss, but with the new financing arrangements is expected to trade profitably. Cleveland intends to maximise revenue from existing warehouses and develop the site further. The acquisition is a first step in the company’s strategy to diversify from its core business – investing in industrial property.
Engineering consultant and building surveyor W S Atkins is planning a £200m flotation later this month. Its turnover has doubled to £235.8m in the past five years, with pretax profits for the year to March of £19.8m and earnings per share of 12.8p. No new shares will be issued: around 25% of the equity held by founding family trusts and the company’s pension scheme will be placed with institutional shareholders.
Cardiff Property – which, contrary to its name, operates in the M4-M3-M25 triangle and near Heathrow – has made pretax profits of £118,000 (£131,000) in the half-year ended March. Rental income was £355,000 – over 50% of which came from two commercial properties- and net assets are up 4p to 246p. The company has bought two development prospects: an office property in Burnham, Bucks; and a 3.2ha (8 acre) residential site in Surrey. Since the half-year-end it has let offices in Hounslow and sold a housing site in Ealing.
