Telford Homes Regulatory News (TEF)

1 Apr 2005 10:15

Telford Homes PLC01 April 2005 1 April 2005 Telford Homes Plc Internal Re-organisation, Board Changes and End of Year Trading Update Telford Homes is pleased to announce an internal restructuring of itsoperational business to enable the Company to achieve its plans for continuedgrowth. Strategic review In November 2004 the directors undertook a strategic review which concluded thatthe Company could achieve significant growth within its target markets. Thefinancial resources and strategies are in place for this growth but the reviewidentified that a change in the operational structure of the business would helpus achieve our ambitions. Telford Homes Alto and Telford Homes Metro This change involves the creation of two new operating divisions reporting intothe main board of Telford Homes. These divisions will be called Telford HomesAlto and Telford Homes Metro. It is typical in our industry for a number ofgeographic operating divisions to report into a group board. However it remainsone of our strengths that we operate in a relatively small area primarily inEast and North London. The board has decided that this concentration of ourbusiness should continue to maximise the benefit of the excellent relationshipswe have established in this locality. In addition it is clear that theregeneration of some of these neighbourhoods has barely commenced and thereforemany more development opportunities exist. The operating divisions of Telford Homes have been created to take advantage ofthe specialist knowledge required to undertake construction work at differentscales and using different methods. Telford Homes Metro will be responsible for smaller scale developments whereeach design is unique and construction, while of standard materials, can oftenbe complex and involve operating under difficult conditions. The focus on thesedevelopments will be to minimise the time between land purchase and handover ofthe completed apartments in order to maximise return on capital. Ourhistorically high rate of return on capital has been driven by these smallerscale developments. Telford Homes Alto will be responsible for larger developments where the timerequired both in design and planning of the construction work is much greaterand where the construction itself is usually reinforced concrete frame andrequires different skills to those required on a smaller development. Typicallythese are flagship developments with substantial investment on each site. The brand name of Telford Homes Plc has become very strong in our key areas andtherefore all of our developments will continue to be marketed under the groupname. Sales and Marketing, Land Buying, Social Housing Partnerships and Financeand Administration will be central services working very closely with the newoperating divisions. Management and Board changes I am delighted to announce that Mark Parker has joined us from the Barratt Groupto become the Managing Director of Telford Homes Metro. Mark has many yearsexperience in the industry and will be a valuable asset to the Company.Furthermore, Mark Duffield has been appointed Technical Director and JeremyBrett, Construction Director of Telford Homes Metro. I am also delighted to announce that John Fitzgerald has been promoted to becomethe Managing Director of Telford Homes Alto. John was previously ConstructionDirector of Telford Homes Plc and his drive and ambition will be valuable skillsas he takes on this important new role. John is assembling a first rate team tosupport him and to this end Chris Dreher has been promoted to become theCommercial Director of Telford Homes Alto. The directors of the new divisions will take over the operational management ofthe business and the role of the main board of Telford Homes Plc willincreasingly focus on the overall strategy and direction of the Company. Inthese circumstances it is appropriate to have a smaller board. As a result ofthese changes John Fitzgerald, Mark Duffield and Jeremy Brett have all steppeddown from the board of Telford Homes Plc and therefore resigned as directorswith effect from the close of business on 31st March 2005. I would like to takethis opportunity to thank them for their respective contributions to the boardand to wish both them and everybody else involved in the restructuring the bestof luck in their new positions. Trading update Our financial year came to an end yesterday and I can confirm that we anticipatereporting results in line with market expectations when we announce ourpreliminary results on 24th May 2005. Once again we have had a very successfulyear and the restructuring I have outlined above is part of the process toensure this success continues. Andrew Wiseman1 April 2005 For further information please contact: Andrew Wiseman, Chief ExecutiveJon Di-Stefano, Financial Director020 8498 6789 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange