Review wipes £6.7m off Pochin’s portfolio
CHESHIRE construction group Pochin’s said an evaluation of its property holdings, including those held in joint ventures, has wiped £6.7m off the value.
Knight Frank carried out the review, the Middlewich company’s first for three years.
It said this reduction was partly offset by an excess over book value of £3.4m in the value of some land assets, “however as these are held as inventory items, this increase in value cannot be reflected in the accounts” it said in a stock market statement.
Pochin’s has sold its interest in a business park at Keele University leaving only “one remaining significant joint venture of value” which it did not name. Knight Frank’s assessment has indicated an impairment, “which, if adopted, would result in a fall of £1.5m in the carrying value of the group’s interest in the joint venture”.
The group will give a full report in its forthcoming full-year figures for the 12 months to the end of May.
Chief executive John Moss said: “In advance of the completion of the company’s annual report and accounts, we took the decision to commission Knight Frank to undertake an external valuation of our assets. The last few years have been a challenging time across both the construction and property sectors, and we are proud that Pochin’s has continued to maintain its strong market position and has consistently delivered high quality work for our clients.
“Now that positive economic figures are starting to emerge, this is the right time to be reflective and take stock, in order to ensure that we are ideally placed tocapitalise on any upturn.”
