Christie Regulatory News (CTG)

12 June 2019

Christie Group plc("Christie Group" or the "Company")

AGM Statement

Christie Group plc (CTG.L), the leading provider of Professional & Financial Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors, announces that at today's Annual General Meeting, the Chairman and Chief Executive, David Rugg, issued the following statement:

"Year to date, UK markets have been rudderless, no doubt born out of the political turmoil. Our markets remain open for business. However, by design not all our services are transaction-reliant.

Professional & Financial Services2019 has already been notable for the completion of market-setting transactions across our sectors. These have served to offset some weaknesses so far in core volumes.For example, in Dentistry we completed the sales of Caledonian Dental in Perth and the prestigious Houston Group of practices in the South West of England, believed to be the largest single site dental practices in Scotland and England respectively.

In the Pharmacy sector, we completed a number of prestigious assignments including the sale of a group of five pharmacies in the Home Counties and are instructed by Jhoots Healthcare Ltd to dispose of at least 10 pharmacies across the country.

Our Childcare & Education team arranged the sale of Daybreak Nurseries to All About Children. In Retail, we sold a further 31 Wyevale Garden Centres to Dobbie's for an undisclosed sum where the aggregated asking price for the sites totalled £160m. 

On the instructions of Administrators KMPG, we undertook an accelerated sales process for 20 restaurant sites including Jamie's Italian, Fifteen London and Barbecoa. For Duff & Phelps, we have sold a number of pubs related to Mitchells of Lancaster. Separately, we have recently launched the sale of a portfolio of 24 pubs on behalf of Wadworth & Company Limited.On behalf of the LPA fixed charge receiver, Smith & Williamson, we have over 170 signed non-disclosure agreements with parties as part of the process for the sale of the 160 bed Days Hotel Waterloo which is now at first round bid stage and we have also run a sales process for a group of modern hostels, an increasingly sought after asset class.

Our consultancy teams have been busy and creative advising on over £1.4 billion of care assets. They also advised CBRE Global Investors, together with Pygmalion on the Silken Hotel portfolio acquisition in Spain and we have subsequently secured the annual valuation of the portfolio.

Pinders, our national Business Appraiser, celebrates 50 years this July. The range of businesses it considers is wide and, in the period, included one of the country's premier veterinary groups - consisting of a modern hospital facility, 10 satellite units and a bespoke equine facility - and a 750 pupil school raising £5 million for a borders block. Pinders was appointed by Santander to its 'RBS switches cases' for trading businesses.

Internationally we continued our run with the sale of the Ibis Styles Paris Montmartre. We celebrated 20 years trading in Germany with the sale of Amedia Hotel Weiden and launched the sale of Project Home, a portfolio of 13 hotels across Germany.

In Financial Services we continued to expand. A new and positive feature is that 10% of our core business mortgages cases benefit from additional unsecured borrowing. Already in 2019, we have equalled the unsecured fee income that we achieved in the whole of 2018. We have also seen greater acceptance by businesses to borrow from alternative lenders such as challenger banks and FinTech. Our insurance Services form a natural stablemate for our borrowers.

Stock & Inventory Systems & Services

Our Hospitality stocktaking services are often engaged by management services companies. We work with 10 of the most significant in the UK. Revenues continue to grow with a foray into Europe for Moxy Hotels. Our newly introduced and confidential allergen audits have seen immediate client appreciation.

In UK Retail stocktaking, we have instigated a new pay model for counters and early signs are encouraging. Using our own technology, we have introduced 'Green Screening' for work scheduling to drive better decision-making and thereby more profitable job planning. New clients include Fenwick, Samsonite (UK and Europe) and MISUMI for warehouse and factory goods. Elsewhere we enjoyed a robust performance in the Benelux countries and France.

Vennersys announces its latest win, the National Forest Adventure Farm. We continue to upsell additional modules, such as our leading 'party booking' module to Family Entertainment Centres (F.E.C.s) and automated renewals through our membership's renewal portal.

Summary

As we move into our second half, we carry the strongest portfolio of corporate transaction mandates we have known, covering as they do, each of our trade sectors. Whilst the timing of transactions is uncertain, we have in prospect a stronger second half."

Enquiries:

Christie Group plc

David Rugg 020 7227 0707

Chairman and Chief Executive

Dan Prickett 020 7227 0700

Chief Operating Officer

Stockdale Securities:

Andy Crossley / Antonio Bossi 020 7601 6100

Nominated Adviser & Broker

Notes to Editors:

Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services group with 43 offices across the UK, Europe and Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors. 

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PFS - Christie & Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.

Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long-established reputation for offering essential services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.

For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.