- 29% increase in turnover to £30.4m
- EBITDA up 27% to £11.4m
- £237m debt refinancing
- Number of stores reaches 100
European self-storage provider Safestore today announced EBITDA of £11.4m on turnover of £30.4m for the six months to 30 April 2006.
Safestore chief executive Steve Williams said: “In the last three years we have worked to transform Safestore into a major European player in the developing self-storage market. The business reporting these strong half year results today is substantially different both in terms of its size and geographical spread from the one that we acquired in 2003.
“Our focus going forward will be on maintaining our store opening strategy, taking advantage of contracting property yields and integrating further add-on acquisitions where appropriate.”
Since 2003, when Safestore was the subject of a recommended cash offer by European private equity firm Bridgepoint, the management team has worked with its new shareholder to pursue selective add-on acquisitions for the business. In June 2004 it acquired via a de-listing, Mentmore plc in a £209m transaction. In April 2005, Safestore’s position was further enhanced when it acquired Access Self Stockage in France and Storage World in the UK in August 2005.
Safestore also announces today details of a £237m senior debt placing whose joint mandated arrangers are Merrill Lynch and RBS. These new funding arrangements will allow £101m to be returned to institutional shareholders. Separately, the company has also negotiated significant new capital expenditure facilities arranged by RBS and HSBC. Sole adviser to the company on the refinancing was Merrill Lynch International.