The 70th Annual General Meeting of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc approved a resolution that permits the board to implement, as it deems necessary or expedient, the spin-off of a number of property assets into a separately listed public limited company.
The spin-off will be effected by way of a distribution of its shareholding in the group’s property company, Trident Estates Ltd, to shareholders pro rata to the shares held by them in Simonds Farsons Cisk plc at the time of issue. Trident Estates Ltd intends to file an application with the Listing Authority for admission to listing of its shares on the Malta Stock Exchange.
Farsons chairman Louis Farrugia explained that over the years, the group acquired a significant base of real estate. “Although most of our property portfolio is utilised within the group’s core brewing and beverage operations, a number of property interests offer scope for re-development. As previously announced, our board believes it would therefore be advantageous to separate a portion of the group’s property portfolio into a new structure.”
During the meeting, the company also gave an account of the satisfactory results for the financial year ending January 31, 2017. During the last five years, the market capitalisation of Farsons Group has increased significantly.
Mr Farrugia said that a positive year-on-year performance has enabled Farsons to pursue an aggressive capital expenditure programme, including the recently inaugurated €27 million Beer Packaging Facility, and several other projects. The board is also evaluating the current debt structure for the group including the possibility to redeem the existing bonds and issue new bonds over the coming months.
Farsons Group CEO Norman Aquilina said: “The group registered a record profit for the year of €12 million, exceeding last year’s record performance by eight per cent.
“While continuing to seek growth opportunities in our domestic market, we will maintain a strong focus on innovating and internationalising our business further to realise our aspirations of becoming a regional brewery,” he added.
“Throughout the year, management has continued to drive forward measures which further improved productivity and overall efficiency, with highly trained employees and superior quality standards. These ongoing initiatives have also led Farsons to win more awards for its beers in Brussels and Australia.”
Both Max Ganado and Roderick Chalmers were uncontested and re-appointed as directors. All the other resolutions proposed at the AGM were approved including the board’s recommendation of a final dividend of €2.4 million, bringing the total declared dividend for the year to €3.4 million.