Western Selection Plc - Final Results

28 September 2022

Western Selection PLC

(the “Company” or “Western”)

Final Results for the Year Ended 30 June 2022

The Company today announces its audited final financial results for the year ended 30 June 2022.

Business Model

Western’s objective is to generate growth in value for shareholders over the medium to long-term. The Company also aspires to pay a progressive dividend, when in the best interest of the shareholders and the Company, including ensuring any dividend paid would not have a negative effect on the ability to maintain continued growth.

Recently some of the Core Holdings held by the Company have not performed well. The Board has fully engaged with those companies’ boards to encourage change and ensure a focus on shareholder value. We are delighted that we have seen a recovery in value in some cases and continue to be fully engaged investors. At present we are not seeking to invest in new Core Holdings. We continue to actively invest through our treasury operations which consists of a mix of cash and debt facilities as well as the liquid investments. These liquid investments are primarily in blue-chip companies in the USA, UK and Europe.

Results for the year

The Company’s net assets per share ended the year have remained unchanged at 56p (2021: 56p). Although net assets rose to 68p at our half-year, poor performance at Kinovo brought our asset value back to the same level as at our last year-end. During the year, we disposed of 2,234,500 shares in Crestchic Plc (formerly Northbridge Industrial Services Plc) for £3,817,000 investing the proceeds in our Treasury Portfolio. At the end of the year, our exposure to shares in our quoted Core Holdings had reduced to 31% of net assets (2021: 66%).

There have been no dividends and no prospect of future dividends from City Group PLC (“City Group”). The view of the Western board is that City Group is likely to be much less profitable in the future, and that an impairment provision should be made. As a result, £130,000 impairment provision was made against the value of the Company’s investment in City Group in these financial statements.

The Core Holdings paid dividends in the period to the value of £49,000 (2021: Nil). Dividends to the value of £148,000 (2021: £49,140) were received from companies within the Treasury Portfolio. 

We are continuing to work hard to constrain costs, despite the increasing burden of regulation on us and many of our suppliers, which will inevitably feed through to higher operating costs in certain areas.

Following this, the Company is reporting a loss on ordinary activities after tax for the year of £438,000 (2021 – loss after tax £109,000) and total comprehensive loss of £75,000 (2021 – profit of £1,911,000).

Dividend

As the Company had not received sufficient dividend income, no interim dividend is recommended by the Board.

Core Holdings

Crestchic Plc (previously Northbridge Industrial Services Plc)

Crestchic designs, manufactures and sells specialist industrial equipment to a non-cyclical customer base. With offices or agents in the UK, USA, Dubai, Germany, Belgium, France, Australia, New Zealand, China and Singapore, Crestchic has a global customer base. This includes utility companies, the oil and gas sector, shipping, construction and the public sector. The product range includes loadbanks, transformers and oil tools. Further information about Crestchic is available on their website: www.crestchicplc.com

Crestchic, which is admitted to trading on AIM, announced its results for the year ended 31 December 2021 on 12 April 2022 and recorded a total comprehensive loss of £5,515,000 for the year (2021- total comprehensive loss of £7,400,000). A final dividend of £0.01p was announced and paid by Crestchic in June this year (2021 - £Nil).

Western has disposed of 2,234,500 shares in Crestchic and now holds 1,065,500 Crestchic shares which represents 3.6% of Crestchic’s issued share capital. Following the disposal, the market value of this investment on 30 June 2022 was £2,024,450 (2021 - £3,828,000) which represents approximately 20.3% (2021 – 38.1%) of Western’s net assets.

Kinovo Plc (“Kinovo”) (formerly Bilby Plc)

Kinovo is an established, and award winning, provider of gas installation, maintenance and general building services to local authority and housing associations across London and South-East England. They have a strategy of growing organically and by acquisition. Further information about Kinovo is available on their website: www.kinovoplc.com

Kinovo, which is admitted to trading on AIM, announced its results for the year ended 31 March 2022 on 19 August 2022 showing a total comprehensive loss of £10,882,000 compared to a total comprehensive profit of £157,000 for the previous year ended 31 March 2021. Interim dividends of £0.05p per share were paid during the year (2021 – Nil). No final dividend (2021 - £0.05p per share) was recommended.

Western holds 7,500,000 Kinovo shares which represents 12.07% of Kinovo’s issued share capital. The market value of this investment on 30 June 2022 was £1,125,000 (2021- £2,775,000), which represents approximately 11.3% (2021 – 27.7%) of Western’s net assets.

Associated Companies

Industrial & Commercial Holdings PLC (“ICH”)

ICH is a small unquoted PLC in which Western holds 15,252,774 shares which represents a 29.9% interest. ICH owns land at Milngavie, adjacent to Dougalston golf course, just north-east of Glasgow, which, with planning permission, has potential for residential development.

Over the past year, ICH, in conjunction with its development partners, Mactaggart & Mickel (M&M), have been making substantial submissions in pursuit of gaining planning permission for the land holding at Dougalston, Milngavie.  Following our efforts, it is clear that the Reporters’ Unit considers the merits of the site, its location, its proximity to services and most importantly, its deliverability. Should the occasion arise where housing numbers are not being met by East Dunbartonshire Council (EDC), then the Reporters’ Unit would consider the Milngavie site as being favourable for development.

David Marshall and Edward Beale are directors of ICH.

City Group PLC (“City Group”)

Western holds 48.6% and London Finance & Investment Group PLC (Western’s largest shareholder) holds 51.4% of City Group, an unquoted public company, which provides head office and company secretarial services to both these and other companies. City Group acts as a shared service centre for related party clients and sells surplus time to unrelated clients.

There have been no dividends and there is no prospect of future dividends from City Group. The control that London Finance & Investment Group PLC has over City Group is such that should our investment in City Group be put up for sale there are likely to be no unrelated buyers for Western’s shares in City Group. 

The view of the Western board is that there can be no anticipation of receipt of funds from this investment and that an impairment provision should be made to write down the carrying value of the investment in City Group from £140,000, being Western’s share of Net Asset Value of City Group, to an estimated sales value of £10,000.

Edward Beale and David Marshall are directors of City Group.

Treasury Operations

Treasury Operations consist of cash balances and stock market investments.

The portfolio is diverse with investments primarily made into blue-chip equities in the UK, USA and Europe. During the year we made investment purchases of £2,372,608 and investment sales (net of selling expenses) of £573,810. At 30 June 2022, the number of holdings in the Treasury portfolio was 43 (2021 – 39), and the market value of these investments was £5,529,000 (2021: £4,001,000).

Cash and borrowings

Treasury operations were moved to Credit Suisse in May 2022. The previous bank borrowing facility of £1,900,000, a Sterling bank account and an interest rate swap arrangement have been closed.

The new Treasury operations include foreign currency bank accounts (GBP, EUR, USD, CHF and AUD) and a borrowing facility of up to £2,000,000 secured over the Treasury investment portfolio.

At the year-end, the Company had cash of £1,259,475 (2021 – £26,305). The Company had no outstanding bank borrowing at the year-end (2021 – £700,000).

Outlook

The outlook for the UK and world economy is very uncertain. The war in Ukraine has disrupted energy and food supplies and exacerbated inflationary pressures. Interest rates are rising, but real rates remain negative. Discretionary expenditure is being trimmed. The diverse nature of our investments and the liquid funds available to the Company will allow us to capitalise on the opportunities that market changes will undoubtedly throw up.

Summary of Net Assets 

Notes:

(a) The carrying value of these associated companies is cost plus the Company’s share of profits/(losses).

(b) Other net assets include non-cash assets within Treasury Operations and other working capital

28 September 2022

The Company’s 2022 Report and Accounts will be sent to shareholders shortly.

The information communicated within this announcement was previously deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this information is considered to be in the public domain.

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

For further information, please contact:

Statement of Comprehensive Income

Statement of Changes of Equity

Statement of Financial Position

Registered Number 00234871

Statement of Cash Flow

Notes

1. Earnings/(Loss) per share

Loss per share are based on the loss on ordinary activities after taxation of £438,000 (2021 – loss of £109,000) and on 17,949,872 shares (2021 – 17,949,872) being the weighted average number of shares in issue during the period.

Diluted loss per share at 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2021 are the same as basic loss per share.

1. Net assets per share

The net assets per share are calculated taking investments at market value.

The Company has estimated Corporation Tax losses which cover the potential liability on the unrealised gains on investments.

1. Financial Information

The financial information contained in this preliminary announcement of results has been prepared under the recognition and measurement principles of UK-adopted international accounting standards (‘UK-adopted IAS’) in conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial information does not give sufficient information to comply with UK-adopted IAS which will be contained in the statutory accounts to be sent to shareholders.

The information in this final results announcement has been prepared on the basis of the accounting policies which have been set out in the Company’s Report & Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2022 and does not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of Section 435 of the Companies Act 2006.

The accounts for the year ended 30 June 2021, which were prepared in accordance with UK-adopted IAS, have been reported on by the Company's auditors and delivered to the Registrar of Companies.  The report of the auditors was unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis and did not contain statements under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The statutory accounts for the year ended 30 June 2022 are finalised on the basis of the financial information presented by the directors in this announcement. The auditors have issued an unmodified opinion.

1. Copies of this Announcement

Copies of this announcement are held at the Company’s registered office, 1 Ely Place, London, EC1N 6RY (tel. 020 7796 9060) and are available for a period of 14 days from the date of this announcement.

Caution regarding forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identi?ed by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements re?ect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.