TIDMCTG
RNS Number : 2031B
Christie Group PLC
15 June 2016
15 June 2016
Christie Group plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")
AGM Statement
Christie Group plc (CTG.L), the leading provider of Professional
Business Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
to the leisure, retail and care markets, announces that at today's
Annual General Meeting, the Chairman, Philip Gwyn, issued the
following statement:
"As I recorded in my statement in April at the release of our
2016 results, 2016 started quietly, but gathered pace in spring.
Whilst progress has continued, we expect to record a first half
loss. Thereafter, we reasonably anticipate a post-EU referendum
acceleration of billable activity resulting in full year
profitability.
Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
Orridge, our retail stocktaking business, has now largely
completed its UK fee negotiations, following the introduction of
the Living Wage. Fees have increased and, coupled with changes in
working practices, should enable this activity to trade profitably
over the next year. Our pharmacy stocktaking and delivery check
work continue as profitable activities. Client wins included
Poundworld in the UK and Pandora in Germany.
Our hospitality stocktaking business, Venners, enjoyed growth
through greater local business penetration aided by the appointment
of additional area managers. New wins included Batemans and Cau
Group.
At Vennersys, our visitor attraction systems provider, we
launched releases including airline-style pricing to enable our
clients to react to forward demand, travel trade support to
facilitate re-selling of tickets by approved partners and worked
closely with Tesco Clubcard to enable Clubcard attractions to issue
admission tickets electronically. This increases our online
revenue. New attractions signed include Strawberry Hill and Bristol
Museum.
Professional Business Services
Following the launch earlier this year of our new christie.com
web portal, we have added 4 new international websites to cover
France, Spain, Germany and Austria. Our international operations
have enjoyed improving markets, as instanced by the sale of the
Novotel Nice and two Falkensteiner hotels in Austria.
We have just been instructed to bring to market a significant
mixed-use development in Germany. The assets will represent one of
the largest single site, mixed-use opportunities available this
year in Germany for hospitality and leisure buyers. Elsewhere, our
growing presence in the Medical sector was demonstrated as we
advised on the sale of a group of pharmacies for Medi-Pharmacy to
Brittania among a number of similar instructions.
In the UK, the pre-EU referendum build-up of transactional deals
in our pipeline across our business sectors, whilst currently
depressing revenue, implies that prospects for the year as a whole
remain positive. We anticipate that our second half revenues will
increase significantly over our first half run rate as this
pipeline crystallises on either current or renegotiated terms.
Our FCA Regulated Commercial Finance brokerage, Christie
Finance, reports an increase at this stage in excess of a third in
the total value of funding secured for clients. Our average loan
size is up by 14% on that achieved in the last corresponding
period.
Christie Insurance continues to arrange both life and general
insurance for our transactional clients and the breadth of its
ability to arrange a broad range of cover for clients was
highlighted by the advice it provided to one international hotel
chain in relation to their terrorism cover earlier this year .
Our business appraisal practice, Pinders, gained new panel
appointments to Wesleyan Bank and Atom Bank. In addition to their
business appraisal services, Pinders' project management team has
continued involvement in overseeing the long term refurbishment of
120,000 square feet of head office space for one client, while
their consultancy team are benefitting from an increased volume of
dispute resolution assignments.
Conclusion
In summary, our pipeline of transactions and current
preparations for assignments across the Group leads us to expect
growing revenues for our second half and a profitable and rewarding
year for shareholders."
Enquiries:
Christie Group plc
David Rugg 020 7227 0707
Chief Executive
Dan Prickett 020 7227 0700
Chief Financial Officer
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited:
Dominic Morley / Charles Leigh-Pemberton 020 7886 2906
Nominated Adviser & Broker
Notes to Editors:
Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional
business services group with 46 offices across the UK, Europe and
Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the leisure, retail
and care sectors.
Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions:
Professional Business Services (PBS) and Stock & Inventory
Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the
brand names: PBS - Christie + Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and
Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.
Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long
established reputation for offering essential services to client
companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy,
project management, multi-functional trading systems and online
ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The
diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the
Group's core agency business.
For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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