Quintain Estates and Development has exchanged contracts with AIM-quoted Palace Capital to sell the SeQuel regional property portfolio, along with the Gelderd Point asset in Leeds.
Quintain Estates and Development has exchanged contracts with AIM-quoted Palace Capital to sell the SeQuel regional property portfolio, along with the Gelderd Point asset in Leeds.
The disposal is conditional on approval by Palace Capital’s shareholders at a general meeting to be held on 18 October 2013 and the completion of a £23.5 mln (€28 mln) placing by Palace Capital to part-fund the acquisition.
The agreed purchase price for Quintain’s interest in the business is £39 mln, compared to a market value of £42 mln at end-March 2013. For the year ended 31 March 2013, the regional property business made a loss before tax of £11.8 mln.
Quintain said it will use the proceeds largely to reduce its debt.
'We are delighted to have agreed this transaction which disposes of the majority of our residual regional investment property business,' said Richard Stearn, finance director of Quintain. 'The sale is in line with our strategy to exit non-core assets outside London, reduce group debt and intensify the focus on our London development and investment business and principal asset management activities.'
