PGC
17/12/2014 14:00
ADDRESS
NOT PRICE SENSITIVE
REL: 1400 HRS Pyne Gould Corporation Limited
ADDRESS: PGC: Chairman's address - Annual Shareholder's Meeting
Chairman's address
Pyne Gould Corporation Ltd (PGC) Annual Shareholder's Meeting
Mercure Hotel, Auckland - 2pm, 17th
The 30 June 2014 year provided a satisfactory result with a profit after tax
of $26.6 million raising PGC's Net Tangible Assets by 14% to 73 cents per
share.
As noted in our Annual Report, our final audit has been qualified
specifically and only to the extent that the Torchlight audit had not been
completed. We anticipate that audit being completed before we release our 6
months ending December 31st 2014 results in 2015, and will update the market
accordingly.
It's only 3 years ago (closely following the near $250 million capital
reconstruction of the Group) that we divided the then PGC into: Building
Society Holdings, with the aspiration that it would become a bank (now
Heartland Bank); and PGC, which retained the investment in the Torchlight
Fund, the General Partner of that Fund, and Perpetual Trust. PGC also
retained an investment in EPIC and all the old and unwanted property assets
of Building Society Holdings, which the market referred to as a "rag tag bag
of bin end assets". Anyway, however you wish to describe them, almost all
PGC's previous assets, except for the investment in - and association with -
Torchlight, have been sold at prices that have generated satisfactory profits
and significant cash. PGC is now in the enviable position of owning a share
in a very successful investment fund, in Torchlight, and having considerable
cash holdings with no bank debt.
As a fund manager and investor in undervalued strategic entities (often ones
with distressed bank debt), we are well placed to either invest on our own,
further into Torchlight or in conjunction with Torchlight. The best
opportunities for us to continue our strong growth in Net Tangible Assets per
share (up 69% since June 2012) are in the European theatre, and hence our
transition of domicile to Guernsey and efforts to gain a listing on the
London Stock Exchange.
While this large difference between our NTA and the market price for our
shares exists, the directors will continue with our previously announced
share buy back programme to buy back up to 15% of the issued capital or a
little over 30 million shares. To date we have purchased 9,116,361 shares on
market and cancelled them.
In summary, it has been a very busy 3 years for the company and after
considerable reconstruction PGC is very well placed to grow the underlying
value per share further within Australia, the UK and Europe. The type of
business that we undertake is more common and better understood overseas than
within New Zealand and we understand that. As I have said, our future and
opportunities are overseas, but in pursuit of enhancing that value for
shareholders we won't lose sight of our origins here in New Zealand.
Thank you.
End CA:00259032 For:PGC Type:ADDRESS Time:2014-12-17 14:00:15
