HCFT.L Regulatory News (HCFT)

23 May 2007 12:05

Highcroft Investments PLC23 May 2007 23 May 2007 HIGHCROFT INVESTMENTS PLC Statement at AGM This year there have been two changes to the structure of the information sentto shareholders. The first was the separate proxy form and with it an attendance card. The second was the requirement for the directors to include a business review.In doing this we have shortened the chairman's statement but included greaterdetail in the directors' report and we hope that shareholders will have foundthe information of interest. This is our second year of reporting under international standards butshareholders may be pleased to note that the annual report is actually fourpages shorter than last year - and has a slightly larger font size! Turning to the key highlights shown on page 1: • Gross property income in 2006 was £2,038,000 up 6.3% from £1,917,000 in 2005. This was mainly determined by the investments in Staines and London. • Operating profit after tax in 2005 was £1,500,000 up 9.8% from £1,366,000 in 2005. This result benefited, amongst other things, from special dividends received on some of our equity holdings. • Dividends in respect of the year totaled 13.7p up 8.3% on 2005. • Net asset value was up 9.5% to 830p with net assets up from £39 million to almost £43 million. Finally, just to update you on a couple of items mentioned in the businessreview: One of our shareholders has spotted that the investment at Staines is describedon page 8 as costing £2.99m whereas in the Interim Report for 2006 it wasinaccurately described as costing £3.054m. The higher figure should have beendescribed as being the total expenditure on property in the first half of theyear - that is, including expenditure to date on the residential development inCirencester. Last, on page 9, we report that office buildings were sold in March this year.Shareholders may be interested to know that the proceeds have been used toreduce our borrowings. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange