Cash rich Conygar to buy back shares

1st Dec 2010 08:48

Fed up with its shares trading at a hefty discount to net asset value (NAV), property investment company Conygar is kicking off a share buyback programme.The company said it plans to acquire up to 2m ordinary Conygar shares at a price that is not more than 5% higher than the average middle market closing price of a Conygar share for the five business days preceding the date of acquisition.The announcement coincided with a solid set of full year results in which profit before tax in the year to 30 September rose 8.8% to £14.9m from £13.7m the year before.NAV per share at the end of September was 150p, up 7.1% from 140p a year earlier.During the year the company sold £58.8m of property and acquired £44.8m. The company still has £110m available for further acquisitions.Net cash at the end of September stood at £67.3m, equivalent to 57p per share, but following a post-reporting period acquisition of land in Haverfordwest, cash levels dipped to £53m or 45p per share. "We are continually evaluating a pipeline of opportunities and whilst we have been close on several, we continue to walk away if the fundamentals are not right. We are frustrated not to have done another significant deal in 2010 but we continue to believe that our strong investment discipline in rejecting overpriced transactions will benefit the prospects for our company," said Robert Ware, chief executive of Conygar.A final dividend of 1p has been proposed. The company does not pay interim dividends.