6 Feb 2014 07:00
6 February 2014
Enterprise Inns plc
Interim Management Statement
Enterprise Inns plc (ETI) publishes its Interim Management Statement for the 18 weeks to 1 February 2014, to coincide with its Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00am today at its registered office.
Trading
Our trading performance in the first 18 weeks of the financial year has been encouraging and is in line with our expectations. Like-for-like net income across the whole estate for the year to date is up 1.0% on the prior year, continuing the growth momentum achieved in the final quarter of the prior financial year.
We are focused on continuing to implement actions that will sustain this trading performance and, despite market conditions remaining volatile and challenging, we are confident that by enhancing our pub estate and continuing to support our publicans we are providing the appropriate foundations for delivering sustainable net income growth.
Estate enhancement
The quality of our estate is being improved through the disposal of unsustainable pubs and reinvesting the disposal proceeds in the retained business. As previously stated, our disposal programme is focused on pubs with limited trading potential and we expect such disposals to generate £70 million of proceeds in the current financial year. In the first 18 weeks of the financial year we have made good progress completing or exchanging on 84 pubs for proceeds of £31 million, generating a healthy premium to book value.
We continue to improve our estate and drive returns through capital investment with an expected investment of up to £65 million for the full year. In the first 18 weeks of the financial year we have invested £25 million in support of our letting programme and growth driving enhancements.
Financing
Our new £150 million Forward Start Facility commenced on 16 December 2013 and is available through to June 2016. We have utilised these facilities to repay the £60 million corporate debenture which matured on 3 February 2014. In line with our expectations, bank borrowings net of cash are now at £104 million, down from £301 million a year ago.
During the first quarter and in accordance with the amortisation schedule, we have repaid £11 million of the Unique A3 securitised bonds and £6 million of the A4 securitised bonds, which, together with £6 million of bonds purchased and cancelled, leaves £1,277 million securitised bonds outstanding as at 6 February 2014.
Board changes
As previously announced Ted Tuppen will retire as Chief Executive immediately following today's Annual General Meeting. He will be succeeded by Simon Townsend, currently Chief Operating Officer. The Board would like to thank Ted for his outstanding contribution and leadership since founding the Company over 20 years ago.
As mentioned in the 2013 Annual Report and Accounts, Susan Murray will retire from the Board at the conclusion of today's Annual General Meeting after serving nine years as a non-executive director. The Board thanks Susan for her contribution and wishes her well for the future.
Today we have separately announced that Adam Fowle will be appointed to the Board immediately following today's Annual General Meeting as a new non-executive director.
Forthcoming events
Interim results: 13 May 2014
Interim management statement: 7 August 2014
Preliminary results: 18 November 2014
Analyst Conference call:
9.30am GMT: 020 3139 4830 Pin: 68628304#
Replay: 020 3426 2807 Pin: 645414#
Enquiries
Tulchan Communications, Jonathan Sibun 0207 353 4200
Ted Tuppen, Chief Executive 0121 733 7700
Neil Smith, Chief Financial Officer 0121 733 7700
Emma Greves, Investor Relations Manager 07990 550210
Forward-looking statements
This announcement contains certain statements about the future outlook for ETI. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any statements about future outlook may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different.