First Property Group plc (FPO.L) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the First Property Group plc Annual General Meeting. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand you over to Chairman, Alasdair Locke. Good afternoon.

Thank you very much. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending and listening. So I welcome you all today to our Annual General Meeting and both on the live stream and in the room here. My name is Alasdair Locke. I'm the Group's Chairman, and I'll be chairing today's meeting, and I'm joined by my colleagues, Peter Moon, who's my fellow Non-Executive Director; Ben Habib, who's the Chief Executive; Laura James, who's our Finance Director; Jill Aubrey, our Company Secretary; and Jeremy Barkes, our Business Development Director. With the consent of those shareholders present, I would like to take the notice of the meeting as set out on Pages 73 to 75 of the report and accounts as read. Thank you. Company shareholders have been able to submit questions in advance of this meeting and will also have the opportunity to submit questions as just explained during the meeting via the Investor Meet Company platform or for those in person in the room. And we will deal with all questions at the end of the meeting once the formal business is concluded. So I declare that the quorum required by the Articles of Association of the company is present, and the meeting is therefore properly constituted. You will see on your screens for those watching on the screen, the ordinary resolutions being proposed. And after there's been a show of hands on each resolution, I will advise you of the proxy count. So resolution one, I now propose that the report of the directors and the audited accounts for the year ended 31st of March 2025, now submitted to this meeting be approved and adopted. And I will ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

So I put it to the meeting. Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. The proxy was 58.5 million shares in favor, 42.3 million shares against and 8,202 abstentions. I now propose resolution #2, whereby Mr. Peter Moon be reappointed as a Director of the company, and I'll ask Mr. Ben Habib to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. The proxy vote was similar 58.3 million shares in favor, 42.5 million against and 8,202 abstentions. I now propose Resolution 3, whereby Mr. Ben Habib be reappointed as Director of the company, and I'll ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. And the proxy was 58.2 million in favor, 42.6 million against, 8,202 abstentions. Resolution 4. I now propose Resolution 4, whereby the directors be authorized to reappoint Cooper Perry as auditors of the company to hold office for the conclusion of this meeting until the conclusion of the next general meeting of the company at which accounts are laid. I'll ask Mr. Peter Moon to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. Proxy vote was 58.5 million in favor, 42.3 million against, 8,202 abstentions. I now propose resolution #5, whereby the directors be authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors. I'll ask Mr. Peter Moon again to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against? [Voting]

I declare the resolution carried. Proxy vote was 58.5 million in favor, 42.3 million against and 8,202 abstentions. I now propose the final resolution #6 as set out in full on Page 73, which is an ordinary resolution and requires authority to authorize the directors to allot shares and/or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert any security into shares. I now propose the directors be authorized to allot shares and/or grant rights to subscribe for or to convert securities in accordance with the terms of resolution #6. And I'd ask Mr. Ben Habib to second the proposal.

Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure in seconding the proposal.

Those in favor? [Voting]

Those against. [Voting]

The proxy vote was 57.8 million in favor, 43 million against and 23,851 abstentions. Now ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal business of the meeting, but I am now required to read a statement, which was released on the regulatory news service this morning. So the statement is as follows. The group has taken significant steps in recovering from the difficulties of the last few years of lockdowns and inflation. For the year ended 31st of March 2025, it earned a profit before tax of GBP 3.03 million, a significant outperformance of the market's expectations. And we expect this recovery in profits to be sustained for the current financial year. During the last couple of months, contracts have been exchanged for the sale of 2 group properties, one of which is in the United Kingdom, being a property we acquired earlier this year and the other in Romania. The combined sales consideration for these 2 properties was GBP 4.1 million, which after sales costs should increase the group's free cash by GBP 4 million. The profit before tax from these sales should amount to around GBP 1.2 million. Total funds under management at the 31st of August 2025, including properties owned directly by the group, amounted to GBP 220 million compared to GBP 220 million same figure of 31st of March 2025. Third-party funds under management at 31st of August 2025 amounted to GBP 172 million as opposed to GBP 164 million on the 31st of March. And some 35% of those funds are invested in the United Kingdom. The group expects to announce its results for the 6 months ended 30th of September 2025 on the 27th of November 2025. Thank you. We will now answer any questions, including those that have been submitted in advance or during the meeting. Have we had any advance? What has been submitted in the meeting? I can't.

Right. The first question, with the improving economic outlook for the business, could you be looking to pay dividends?

So we had a Board meeting. This is Ben Habib speaking. We had a Board meeting just before this AGM. And we did actually discuss dividends. I think it may be the second time we discussed dividends in a long time. I think just before the last -- during the last Board meeting, we discussed dividends as well. The group's position is undoubtedly much strengthened compared to where we were a couple of years ago. We did an equity share issue in September last year that gave us the firepower to do, for example, this property deal that we did earlier this year and pay down other bits of debt and so on. And we are slowly trading our way back to a position of liquidity. It would also appear that capital markets in Poland are beginning to fall a little bit. We don't have any broad statistical evidence for this, but our own anecdotal evidence would suggest this is the case because we have had a number of approaches from people -- unsolicited approaches to buy property and to buy property at reasonable values. All of this indicates that we're heading in the right direction. There are, of course, still storm clouds, particularly in the United Kingdom with a charter of check and a government that's wed to economic policies that seem to be self-evidently self-harming. And so with that in mind, we and our improving prospects, we're kind of weighing everything up. But I think we're getting pretty close, Alasdair, aren't we to?

Yes, I'd agree with all of that. I mean it's always been our policy that we would like to pay dividends but only when it's prudent to do so. And we feel, as Ben said, that we are getting towards that position. We're not quite there yet. We want to see a little bit more stability in the market, solidity in our own finances, which we're confident of before we start paying dividends. But the aim is always to get to a dividend-paying position.

Yes.

What's the next question? What is the progress on letting the remaining space in the Warsaw Tower office block from Nigel Chapman. Ben, I'll pass that on to you.

Yes. So there is only 2,300 square meters vacant in Blue Tower. 700 meters of that is spoken for as of January 2026, and we're starting the fit out for that space now. So we will have then 1,600 square meters left to lease. And we are experiencing demand from tenants around the 400 to 500 square meter mark, that sort of size and reasonably good demand. So we would expect, I think, in the next 12 to 18 months to get all of that space leased up. Warsaw has experienced a complete cessation of new development, and that's been brilliant, obviously, for well-located office blocks like Blue Tower, which are right in the bang in the center of town, but cheap because it's just cheap. And so yes, optimistic about that.

Thank you, Ben. There are no more questions on the screen. And any questions in the room? No. Great. So I think that's it. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for attending. And we look forward to the next 12 months with a degree of confidence. Thank you very much. Thank you. Goodbye.

That's great. Alasdair, Ben and the rest of the Board. Thank you for updating attendees today. Could I please ask attendees not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of First Property Group plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's Annual General Meeting, and good afternoon to you.