Business
Acquisition
Acquisition.
About this update from First Property Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n First Property Group PLC\n14 May 2007\n\n\n14 May 2007\n First Property Group plc\n ('Fprop' or 'the Company')\n\n GROWTH OF ASSET MANAGEMENT DIVISION CONTINUES WITH €90 MILLION OF ACQUISITIONS\n AND FSA REGISTRATION\n\nFirst Property Group plc (AIM: FPO), the property asset manager, announces that\nfollowing the acquisitions detailed below it has increased assets under\nmanagement by 68% from €132 million (£90 million) in November 2006 to €222\nmillion (£151 million).\n\nThe Company has acquired on behalf of the funds it manages three office blocks\nin Poland, Romania and the UK, with an aggregate value of some €90 million (£61\nmillion). The properties are all well located for their use class and should\nearn a high running rate of return, having been acquired on yields of between\n6.8% and 7.7%, as well as offering potential for capital gain. The properties\nare respectively let to Prokom Software SA, one of Poland's leading listed\ncompanies, Millennium Bank S.A. and Cadbury Schweppes plc.\n\nAs previously disclosed the Company is concentrating its activities on Central\nand Eastern Europe. The acquisition of the property in the UK, let to Cadbury\nSchweppes plc, was therefore an exception for the Company, the purchase of which\nwas concluded because it offers exceptional active management potential.\n\nFSA Registration\nThe Company also announces that it has succeeded in its application to the\nFinancial Services Authority for registration.\n\nThe Part IV FSA registration allows Fprop to raise, and subsequently manage,\nfunds directly from the public, rather than solely from institutional and\nprofessional investors. Fprop will now be able to access funds from a broad\nrange of investors and structure a wide variety of investment vehicles,\nincluding publicly quoted investment companies, unit trusts as well as regulated\nand unregulated investment schemes.\n\nCommenting, Ben Habib, chief executive of First Property Group, said: 'Fprop's\nasset management activities have grown considerably over the past couple of\nyears and continue to perform well. At our interim results we had over £90\nmillion under management, which was 275% over the previous year's figure. With\nthe acquisition of these three properties, we now have over £150 million under\nmanagement, a further increase of over 68% in less than six mont...