NEW FINANCING STRUCTURE
Private placement issued and facilities extended to take advantage of long term growth prospects
Shepherd Neame,
The new structure gives the Company
· Certainty of funding as the business looks for growth. Major infrastructure and housing development is forecast to take place in the company's heartland between now and 2030 and Kent's population is anticipated to grow by 20% in that time. The company has recently agreed to build a new pub hotel in Castle Hill in the Ebbsfleet Garden City development zone and anticipates further opportunities will arise in the medium term.
· A lower rate of interest than the debt being replaced
· An improved debt maturity profile with a revolving credit facility expiring in 2023, and private placement expiring in 2038
· New debt partners who share and support our long-term focus and strategy
Specifically, the key features of this new financing structure are:
· A private placement raising
· These loan notes replace part of the current term loan that is due to expire in 2026. As a result,
· A new five-year revolving credit facility of
In conjunction with this refinancing, an off-balance sheet Directors' valuation3 of our licensed property assets has been undertaken showing a surplus over current book value of £24m. In future, the Board intends to carry out further off balance sheet Directors' valuations of our licensed estate every four years and will report these updates to shareholders at that time.
Shepherd Neame was advised on its debt refinancing by Rothschild & Co.
1 Profit before tax pre items excluded from underlying results, net finance costs, depreciation, amortisation, profit or loss on sale of fixed assets excluding property and free trade loan discounts.
2 London Interbank Offered Rate
3 The valuation covers licensed properties only and was carried out by the company's professionally qualified staff on a RICS Red Book basis. A sample of 10% of the property values were independently verified by Savills.
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Enquiries:
Shepherd Neame
|
01795 542206 |
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020 7457 2020 |
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Shepherd Neame is
The Company retails its own beers, on draught and in bottles, under a range of highly successful brand names, including:
· Spitfire: One of the leading premium bottled ales in the
· Bishops Finger: Connoisseur premium ale (5.4% abv).
·
· Five Grain Premium Lager: introduced 2017 (5% abv).
· Bear Island East Coast Pale Ale: introduced 2017 on draught (4.8% abv).
·
The Company also brews lagers under licence, including:
·
Shepherd Neame sold 235,000 brewers' barrels of beer (67.7 million pints) including 196,000 brewers' barrels of own beer (56.4 million pints) brewed by Shepherd Neame in the year to
At the year end, the Company operated 321 pubs, of which 242 were tenanted or leased, 11 were held as investment properties under commercial free of tie leases, and 68 managed. The pub estate ranges from inns and hotels to destination dining, great traditional and local community pubs.
Shepherd Neame's shares are traded on the NEX Exchange Growth Market. See http://www.nexexchange.com/ for further information and the current share price.
For further information on the Company, see www.shepherdneame.co.uk.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the