Planestation raises 5.17 mln stg in placing, to buy remainder of EU-JetOps
AFX UK (Focus); Sep 24, 2004
LONDON (AFX) - Planestation Group PLC said it has raised 5.17 mln stg before expenses in a placing of 111,229,395 ordinary shares at 4.65 pence each.
The funds raised will be used to provide working capital for EU-JetOps Ltd ("EUjet"), the low cost regional airline in which the company acquired a 30 pct interest in May 2004.
The company also announced that it has today entered into an option agreement to acquire the remaining shares in EUjet it does not own.
Planestation also said it is in advanced talks for disposals which would realise a total of 10.8 mln stg before next March and potentially further amounts thereafter.
The talks relate to the sale of its 15 acre freehold site at Lincoln, the sale of an interest in the business park at Kent International Airport ("KIA"), and the disposal by auction of the 125-acre site at Redworth and the 3-acre site at Hellaby. The company stressed that the sale of these properties remains conditional on a number of factors and there can be no guarantee as to the timing or the amount of any receipts.
The directors have also received a non-refundable payment of 1.5 mln stg from Langtree Group PLC for the sale of its interest in the International Garden Festival site in Liverpool.
Whilst the sale remains conditional on certain approvals the directors are confident that this will occur by March 31 2005.
Planestation said income from the activities at KIA and the group's other airports is not sufficient to meet its operating costs. The directors have been taking action to cut costs and introduce other measures aimed at reducing overheads.
It is currently estimated for the current year that head office costs have been reduced to approximately 4.5 mln stg from 7.8 mln for the year to March 31 2004 and the costs of running the airports to approximately 6.6 mln stg from 11.1 mln in the previous year.
ENDS
Good luck to all concerned