Conygar positive as Island Quarter development moves forward

The AIM-traded firm said it had no debt and no borrowings at the end of the six months to 31 March.

During the period, development began on the first phase of the company’s mixed-use development at the Island Quarter in Nottingham.

Detailed planning applications were submitted in January and May for the next two phases of the Island Quarter development, which would include a hotel to be managed by Intercontinental Hotels Group, as well as residential rental apartments, a co-working space and a 702-bed student accommodation scheme.

Conygar made a £1.2m write down in the value of its retail park at Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire as a result of the continuing negative investor sentiment towards this sector.

It bought back 0.74 million shares, or 1.4% of its ordinary share capital, at an average price of 109.0p per share during the half.

“After 15 months of Covid-19 we expect the country slowly to return to a semblance of normality, boosted by the extraordinary success of the vaccinations,” said chief executive officer Robert Ware.

“We have no idea how the huge debt hangover from government intervention will affect the future but we think trends such as working from home and retail moving online will have been accelerated.

“We continue to stick to what we know.”

Ware said the Island Quarter project at Nottingham had “significantly progressed” along with the majority of its other assets, adding that the firm was operating with “sensible” overheads, no debt and cash reserves.

“We anticipate real progress will be made over the next year.”

At 1108 BST, shares in the Conygar Investment Company were down 0.14% at 120.33p.