TCA.L Regulatory News (TCA)

17 Nov 2006 07:01

Speymill Macau Property Company PLC17 November 2006 Not for release, publication or distribution in, or into, the United States,Canada, Australia and Japan. Speymill Macau Property Company plc ("the Company") First Day of Dealings on AIM Speymill Macau Property Company plc is pleased to announce the commencement oftrading in its shares on AIM. The ordinary shares will trade on AIM under theRIC code "MCAU". The Company has successfully placed 80 million ordinary sharesof US$0.10 each at US$1.00 per share to raise gross proceeds of US$80 million. Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited acts as Nominated Adviser to theCompany and Fairfax I.S. PLC as Broker. Placing Statistics: Placing Price US$1 Number of Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing 80 million Expenses of the Placing payable by the Company US$4.5 million Net proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company US$75.5 million Market capitalisation at the Placing Price US$80 million Speymill Macau Property Company plc is a newly incorporated Isle of Man companyestablished to invest primarily in the high quality residential property marketof Macau. The Company's objective is to provide shareholders with an attractiveoverall return to be achieved primarily through long-term capital growth. TheCompany's emphasis will be on acquiring assets with an overall target internalrate of return of 20 per cent. per annum. Once fully invested, it is anticipatedthat no one underlying single property building is likely to account for morethan 50 per cent. of the gross assets of the Company. It is expected thatthe Company should be substantially fully invested within 12 months ofAdmission. The Company has a board of five non-executive directors with adiverse range of experience. Further information on the board of directorsappears below. The Manager (Speymill Property Managers Limited), the Investment Adviser(Speymill Property Managers (Far East) Limited) and the Property Adviser (AvilaCapital Limited) will be responsible for identifying new investmentopportunities that fall within the investment policy and objectives agreed bythe Board from time to time. Following the identification of a potential newinvestment opportunity, the Manager, with the assistance of the InvestmentAdviser and the Property Adviser, will be responsible for ensuring all necessarydue diligence is carried out and for negotiating the terms of investment onbehalf of the Company. For further information, please contact: Azhic BasirovSmith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited 020 7131 4000 James KingFairfax I.S. PLC 020 7460 4373 17 November 2006 Notes to Editors About Macau Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China. It comprises some 28.2 squarekilometres and consists of the Macau Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island.Macau has experienced rapid growth over the past 6 years and such growth isexpected to continue. Official Macau data indicated that average annual GDPgrowth was 12 per cent. over the past six years and 15 per cent. in the firstsix months of 2006. Background to the Macau property market The residential property sector dominates the Macau real estate market,representing a significant percentage of total property sales in 2005. Domestichomebuyers have been increasingly seeking to upgrade into larger and newer unitsas a result of rising disposable incomes and economic growth. The Advisersbelieve that the low levels of new construction and refurbishment since themid-1990s have led to a supply bottleneck, with developers now finding itdifficult to meet a stronger than anticipated demand Approximately 12,000 newresidential units are expected to be completed in Macau between 2006 and 2008.During this period, expected demand is for approximately 25,000 units. The commercial property market, serving both domestic demand and touristtraffic, is smaller than the residential property market, but it is a rapidlygrowing and an increasingly important market segment. The last 12 months haveseen a significant increase in commercial rents and demand for quality space.The Advisers believe that an increasing number of business enterprises willlocate in Macau as a result of the expected strong economic growth. Speymill Macau: Board of Directors Larry Kearns, aged 58 (Non-executive Chairman)Larry is Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank (IOM) Limited and its subsidiaries in theIsle of Man. Prior to that he was Managing Partner of Ernst & Young in the Isleof Man from 1990 to 2002. After the sale of Ernst & Young fiduciary business in2002 to Anglo Irish Trust Co Ltd, he became an executive director of thatcompany. On his retirement in 2004 he assumed the position of Chairman. Larrywas Chairman of the Isle of Man Society of Chartered Accountants in 1988 andPresident of the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce from 1991-1993. Peter Churchouse, aged 57 (Non-executive Director)Peter is a currently a partner at Long Investment Management in Hong Kong wherehe runs a dedicated real estate equities investment fund. Prior to joining LongInvestment Management, he was a Managing Director and Asian Property Analyst atMorgan Stanley where he was at various times head of regional research and ranthe real estate research function. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Peter was apartner at Jones Lang Wooton (now Jones Lang Lasalle) where he established andran the real estate research and consultancy function operating out of HongKong. Swen Lorenz, aged 31 (Non-executive Director)Swen is a respected market commentator and analyst, and a published book author.He has held non-executive directorships at companies active in asset management,publishing, and IT. With a 12.5 per cent. stake he is the second largestshareholder in PEH Wertpapier AG, a leading German asset management boutiquewith €2.08 billion of assets under management as at 30 June 2006. He is anon-executive board member of Verein zur Foerderung der Aktionaersdemokratie eV(Association for Enhancing Shareholder Democracy) which since 1991 hasestablished itself as one of Germany's most active charitable organisations forprotecting the legal rights of minority shareholders. He lives in the ChannelIslands and London, where he manages his personal investments. Ken Deayton, aged 60 (Non-executive Director)Ken is a native of Melbourne, Australia. He arrived in Hong Kong in March 1975to take up a position as an Assessor with the Inland Revenue Department. With adegree in Economics from the University of Queensland in Brisbane and a degreein Accountancy from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Ken later took onthe job of Assistant Group Tax Adviser with The Hong Kong and Shanghai BankingCorporation's head office in 1979. Ken became a Principal with Spicer & Oppenheim's Hong Kong office ("S&O") in1986 responsible for Tax and Corporate Services. On the merger of DeloitteTouche Tohmatsu ("DTT") and S&O in 1991, Ken became a Partner of the mergedgroup and continued specializing in Corporate and Accounting Services in HongKong as Partner responsible for Secretaries Limited, the Company Secretarial,Accountancy Services and Share Registration division of DTT. In June 2001 Kenretired from the DTT Partnership and since then has been the managing directorof Asian Financial Services Limited, based in Hong Kong which offers a fullrange of corporate financial services. Jerry Linehan, aged 49 (Non-executive Director)Jerry is the Chief Executive of Conister Trust PLC, a company which specialisesin providing finance in the Isle of Man and the UK ("Conister"). Prior tojoining Conister, he was a director of Royal Bank of Scotland (Isle of Man)("RBSI") where he was responsible for all RBSI Business Divisions on the Isle ofMan, in particular sales and performance. Between 2002 to 2004, he was ManagingDirector of the Isle of Man Bank where he was responsible for the strategicdirection, policy formation and business performance of all Isle of Man Bankoperations. Between 1998 and 2002 Jerry was a Director of Barclays Group, anduntil 2005 was a non-executive director of Holidaybreak (Holdings) Plc and EddieStobart Insurance Limited. He is currently a Council member (and was pastPresident of) the Isle of Man Association of Licensed Banks. Speymill Property Managers Limited: management Floris van DijkumFloris has 17 years of real estate experience as investor, banker and analyst.He is currently the Global Chief Investment Officer of Speymill Group Plc andChairman of the Investment Committee of Speymill Property Managers Ltd. Florisgraduated from the University of Virginia in 1990 with a BA in history andphilosophy. In the late 1990's, Floris was head of the Pan European propertyresearch at Morgan Stanley during which time he helped raise over US$2 billionof equity. Floris left Morgan Stanley in 2000 to help start the real estateinvestment banking division at Lehman Brothers, where he was active on mergersand acquisitions and structured investments and advised on US$5 billion ofinvestments. He joined NIBC Bank in the Netherlands in 2003 where he founded thereal estate banking group and was responsible for structuring and investing inover US$250 million of German property. Bob MacDonaldBob MacDonald is currently Executive Chairman of Speymill Group plc. Beforejoining Speymill, Bob was a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, and prior tothis was global sales manager for Asian equities at Salomon Brothers, nowCitigroup. Bob has been involved internationally in various areas of theequities capital markets business, including running research sales andmarketing and in private wealth management. Agnieszka ZiembaAgnieszka is an Investment Director of the Manager and also responsible forResearch at the Investment Adviser. She has over 8 years' experience ofinvestment banking at Goldman Sachs and Toronto Dominion in London, where shesuccessfully managed balance sheets of over US$2 billion trading fixed income.Prior to this she worked as a strategy consultant in New York and was a foundingmember of Egon Zehnder Poland. Agnieszka has extensive international experienceand has managed rapidly expanding businesses in an entrepreneurial environment.She holds a BA, Magna Cum Laude, in Economics from Yale University, US and anMBA from IESE, Spain. The Company accepts responsibility for the information contained in thisannouncement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the Company (which hastaken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case) the informationcontained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts and does not omitanything likely to affect the import of such information. Fairfax I.S. PLC, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial ServicesAuthority and is a member of London Stock Exchange plc, is acting exclusivelyfor the Company and no one else in connection with the Placing and Admission.Fairfax I.S. PLC will not regard any other person as its customer or beresponsible to any other person for providing the protections afforded tocustomers of Fairfax I.S. PLC nor for providing advice in relation to thetransactions and arrangements detailed in this document. The responsibilities ofFairfax I.S. PLC as the Company's broker for the purposes of the AIM Rules areowed solely to the London Stock Exchange and are not owed to the Company or anyDirector or to any other person. Fairfax I.S. PLC is not making anyrepresentation or warranty, express or implied, as to the contents of thisannouncement. Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulatedby the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the London StockExchange, is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else in connectionwith the Placing and Admission. Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limitedwill not regard any other person as its customer or be responsible to any otherperson for providing the protections afforded to customers of Smith & WilliamsonCorporate Finance Limited nor for providing advice in relation to thetransactions and arrangements set out in this announcement. The responsibilitiesof Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited as the Company's nominatedadviser for the purposes of the AIM Rules are owed solely to the London StockExchange and are not owed to the Company or any Director or to any other person.Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited is not making any representation orwarranty, express or implied, as to the contents of this announcement. The subject matter of this announcement is directed only (i) at persons who arein the United Kingdom and have professional experience in matters relating toinvestments falling within Article 19(1) of the Financial Services and MarketsAct 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 and (ii) to persons to whom it mayotherwise be lawful to distribute it (all such persons together being referredto as "relevant persons"). This announcement must not be acted on or relied onby persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activityto which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons andwill be engaged in only with relevant persons. This announcement does not constitute an offer of, or the solicitation of anyoffer to buy, any of the ordinary shares which are proposed to be offered to anyperson in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer or solicitation isunlawful. The distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may berestricted by law and therefore persons into whose possession this announcementcomes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Anyfailure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of thesecurities laws of such jurisdiction. The ordinary shares which are proposed tobe offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United StatesSecurities Act of 1933 (as amended) and may not be offered or sold, directly orindirectly, in or into the United States absent registration or an exemptionfrom registration. There will be no public offer of securities in the UnitedStates or any other jurisdiction. This announcement does not constitute or form part of an offer, or anysolicitation of an offer, for securities and any purchase or application forshares in the Placing should only be made on the basis of information containedin the formal AIM admission document issued by the Company in connection withthe Placing. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange