Winkworth to return £1.15m of surplus funds to shareholders

Real estate group Winkworth has announced plans to return around £1.15m of surplus funds to its shareholders.

The company said on Friday that the proposed cancellation of its share premium account of approximately £1.79m will enable it to make the return of capital of around £1.146m. The balance, less the costs of the return of capital, would then be transferred to the company's profit and loss account, creating additional distributable reserves, which may be use by Winkworth for facilitating future returns of cash.

Subject to shareholder approval, investors would receive 9p for each of their shares in the company.

Chief executive officer Dominic Agace said: "Winkworth's franchising model is not capital intensive and, since its admission to AIM in 2009, the company has created regular free cash flow. We believe that it is currently in shareholders' best interest for excess capital to be returned.

"We remain alert to acquisition opportunities and, should the need arise, we will approach shareholders to help fund any sizeable acquisitions. In the meantime, we continue to successfully grow our franchise network organically, with a further eight offices scheduled to be added in 2018."