Astrapak issues cautionary statement

Johannesburg - Astrapak [JSE:APK] announced on Friday a renewed cautionary announcement regarding the disposal of properties associated with flexible assets held for sale.

Astrapak's property holding subsidiaries Micawber 430 and Micawber 451 have entered into agreements to dispose of their respective letting enterprises and properties to the Truzen Trust 123 and the Truzen Trust 124 respectively on a going concern basis.

The decision to dispose of the property businesses accords with Astrapak's strategic objective to focus on its core moulding and forming technology platform and to dispose of the residual properties and flexible assets already classified as held for sale.

In terms of the transaction, Astrapak will dispose of the property businesses to the purchasers on a going concern basis and the flexible businesses of Barrier Film Converters and Peninsula Packaging (a division of Master Plastics will continue to occupy these properties as tenants.

The aggregated disposal consideration in respect of the Transaction is R49.6m. This represents a premium of R6.2m to the book value of assets being disposed of in terms of the transaction. The proceeds will be utilised by Astrapak to reduce its current level of gearing.

The value of the net assets and the profits attributable to the net assets As at the financial year ended 29 February 2016, the book value of the assets that are the subject of the transaction was R43.4m. The property businesses generated turnover of R6.0m in rental income and had an attributable profit of R3.8m for the financial year ended February 29 2016.

The effective date of the transaction will be the date of transfer of the properties in the Deeds Office which is expected to be on or about August 31 2016. The transaction is a Category 2 transaction in terms of the JSE listings requirements and accordingly no shareholder approval is required.

Shareholders are referred to prior cautionary announcements and are advised to continue exercising caution when trading in their Astrapak shares.