Interim Management Statement
January 15 2009 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMLMR
RNS Number : 6673L
Luminar Group Holdings PLC
15 January 2009
?Luminar Group Holdings plc
Interim Management Statement
Luminar Group Holdings plc ("Luminar" or the "Group") announces its Interim
Management Statement for the period from 29 August 2008 to 15 January 2009.
Trading
The Group's trading performance has been mixed throughout the December period
with overall sales below our expectations. The Group experienced strong
admission increases year on year of 3.2% in the Dancing Division with a
particularly marked increase on the key nights but with a fall in the spend per
head. Outside of the key trading nights and before Christmas, admissions were
down on the prior year.
Door income and income derived from online bookings have been greater year on
year. Online bookings were up 63.0% on the prior year. This has supported our
gross margins. The total gross margins for December remained solid at 84.8%
(2007: 84.7%).
As a consequence of the overall trading dynamics covered by this period, the
results for the year ended 26 February 2009 will be below the Board's previous
expectations.
The sales performance is set out below for the 5 weeks ending 1 January 2009 and
the cumulative financial year to date.
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Total | Five weeks to | FY09 |
| | 01 January 2009 | Year to Date |
| | | |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Total Dancing (85 units) | (1.5%) | (1.7%) |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Branded Dancing (59 units) | level | 1.3% |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Like-for-like | Five weeks to | FY09 |
| | 01 January 2009 | Year to Date |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Total Dancing (76 units) | (5.1%) | (4.4%) |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
| Branded Dancing (52 units) | (4.7%) | (2.8%) |
+--------------------------------+----------------------+----------------+
Development
The final branded development of the current year was completed in Dundee during
November, bringing the total for the year to eight branded openings and twelve
refurbishments. No further openings are anticipated in the current financial
year and there has been no committed development expenditure for the next
financial year.
Net debt and banking
The Group is well financed with freehold asset backing (last valued at GBP180.0m
in May 2008).
The Group's net debt as at 5 January 2009 was approximately GBP150.0m and this
is anticipated to reduce by the year end. As previously announced in August
2008, the Group has total banking facilities of GBP195.0m, (GBP180.0m rolling
credit facility and GBP15.0m asset financing) which will not need to be
renegotiated until 2012.
Outlook
The Christmas period trading, whilst achieving solid footfall, has demonstrated
that our customer base has become significantly more price sensitive. In order
to offset this, we have already made good progress against the cost savings
targets set and will further intensify our actions around value promotions,
execution of the customer strategy and further cost reductions in the business.
Additionally, we have scaled back the planned capital expenditure for the year
ending February 2010 from GBP35.0m to approximately GBP15.0m.
The Board paid an interim dividend on 9 January 2009, which gave a yield of
approximately 4% to our shareholders, but expects not to pay the final dividend
in the interest of reducing the Group's indebtedness. This policy will be
reviewed during the normal course of business.
Luminar remains well placed to strengthen its number one market position as the
current economic conditions continue to lead to a contraction in the supply of
late night entertainment venues.
15 January 2009
Enquiries
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| Luminar Group Holdings plc | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| Stephen Thomas, Chief Executive | Tel: 01908 544120 (today) |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| Nick Beighton, Finance Director | Tel: 01908 544135 (thereafter) |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| College Hill | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| Matthew Smallwood | Tel: 020 7457 2020 |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
Appendix 1: Unit reconciliation
The table below reconciles the units reported as at 28 February 2008 and 28
August 2008 to those reported as at 15 January 2009:
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| | 28 | | | 28 | | 15 |
| |February | | | August | | January |
| | 2008 | | | 2008 | | 2009 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Segments | Total |Transfers |Disposals | Total |Transfers | Total |
| | units * | | *** | units * | ** | units * |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| | | | | | | |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Branded | 52 | 6 | (1) | 57 | 2 | 59 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Unbranded | 28 | - | - | 28 | (2) | 26 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Dancing | 80 | 6 | (1) | 85 | - | 85 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| | | | | | | |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Non-core | 20 | (2) | (7) | 11 | (1) | 10 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| | | | | | | |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Total | 100 | 4 | (8) | 96 | (1) | 95 |
+-----------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
* The units presented above exclude those units which are closed for development
(seven units at 15 January 2009) or have been sub-let (eight units at 15 January
2009).
** Net transfers since the half year end relate to units transferred to
development or sub-let. Two branded openings have taken place since the half
year.
*** Disposals exclude 11 sub-let units, two units closed for development and one
former head office unit, which were disposed of during the half year. A further
five units exchanged on 16 April 2008 and are due to complete in the forthcoming
months.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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