Applegreen PLC Annual Report and Notice of AGM (4613T)
July 20 2020 - 2:10AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAPGN
RNS Number : 4613T
Applegreen PLC
20 July 2020
Applegreen plc
("Applegreen" or the "Company" or the "Group")
Publication of Annual Report and Accounts and Notice of AGM
Dublin, London, 20 July 2020: Further to its announcement of 30
June 2020, the Company confirms that its annual report and accounts
for the year ended 31 December 2019 ("Annual Report") has been
published and is available to view on the Company's website at
www.applegreenstores.com. The Annual Report and a notice c onvening
an Annual General Meeting will be sent to shareholders shortly.
The Company's Annual General Meeting is expected to be held at
11.00 am on Tuesday, 1 September 2020. We acknowledge there is
currently some uncertainty as to whether it will be possible for
shareholders to attend the AGM in person in light of COVID-19
restrictions and will provide a further update on this in the
notice c onvening the Annual General Meeting.
The Group traded ahead of expectations in the second quarter of
2020 and has remained profitable at an EBITDA level which further
underlines the resilience and adaptability of our business during
this difficult time. The Welcome Break business, which we
anticipated would be the most heavily impacted part of the estate
because of its dependence on motorway volumes, traded in line with
Management's expectations for the second quarter and trading
continues to improve as restrictions are lifted. The remainder of
the Applegreen estate traded ahead of Management's expectations,
aided by strong store sales in the local petrol filling station
sites, good fuel margins and extensive cost saving measures.
The Group's cash position is more positive than expected due to
the stronger than expected performance. As at 30 June 2020, the
Group had consolidated net external debt (pre-IFRS 16) of
approximately EUR550m (31 December 2019: EUR525m), comprising
approximately EUR110m of cash and approximately EUR660m of external
debt which includes Welcome Break facilities that are non-recourse
to the wider Applegreen group:
-- approximately EUR70m of cash and EUR260m of external debt
within the Applegreen plc banking group; and
-- approximately EUR40m of cash and EUR400m of external debt within Welcome Break.
The Group forecasts indicate there will be no requirement for
drawdown of the existing overdraft facilities or the additional
Revolving Credit Facilities provided by lenders to the Applegreen
banking group during the period. Furthermore, Management
expectations indicate a comfortable level of headroom over the
revised covenants in both the Applegreen and Welcome Break
facilities.
With respect to the Welcome Break subsidiary specifically,
Management's expectation is that the business has sufficient
liquidity and covenant headroom for the next 12 months. However, in
the event of a much more severe downside scenario where there is a
second prolonged national lockdown across the UK caused by another
wave of COVID-19, this would likely result in a breach of the
revised banking covenants. In such a circumstance the Board would
need to take further mitigating actions and/or re-negotiate with
lenders to avoid potentially triggering a repayment of outstanding
debt. Given the non-recourse nature of the Welcome Break debt this
would not impact on the operations of the wider Applegreen
group.
Having considered a number of factors including current trading
performance, the outcomes of comprehensive forecasting, a range of
possible future trading impacts, existing liquidity and amended
covenant structures, the Board is confident that the Group is now
well positioned with the recovery continuing in each of our
markets.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Applegreen +353 (0) 1 512 4800
Bob Etchingham (CEO) / Niall Dolan (CFO)
Drury Porter Novelli (Ireland PR Advisor) +353 (0) 1 260 5000
Paddy Hughes
MHP Communications (UK PR Advisor) +44 (0) 7709 496 125
Simon Hockridge / Peter Hewer / Alistair
de Kare-Silver +44 (0) 7551 170 451
Shore Capital +44 (0) 20 7408 4090
Stephane Auton / Patrick Castle / Daniel
Bush
Goodbody +353 (0) 1 667 0420
Joe Gill / Richard Tunney
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END
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