Goldmoney Inc. Announces Third Property Acquisition in the UK
TORONTO, Dec. 22, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Goldmoney Inc. (TSX: XAU) (US: XAUMF) (“Goldmoney” or the “Company”), is pleased to report that further to its press release of June 13, 2023 announcing the Company’s real assets investment strategy, the Company’s subsidiary Goldmoney Properties Ltd. has completed the acquisition of its third property in the UK.
On December 22, 2023, Goldmoney Properties completed the acquisition of St James Place I and II, in Cirencester, Cotswold District, in the county of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The asset is comprised of two buildings with a total gross internal area (GIA) of 132,763 square feet. St James Place I was built in 2007 and won the British Council for Offices (BCO) award for Best Corporate Workplace in the South of England & Wales region in 2008. St James Place II was built in 2016 and won the BCO award for Best Corporate Workplace in the South of England & Wales region in 2017. The two buildings were acquired by ABRDN and a subsidiary of Phoenix Group Holdings for £47.4 million in 2019.
Goldmoney Properties has acquired the building from ABRDN and a subsidiary of Phoenix Group Holdings in an off-market transaction for consideration of £26.5 million (approximately CAD $44.8 million). The acquisition was financed by Barclays PLC at a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of approximately 65%. The financing rate is fixed for a period of five years at an interest rate of approximately 5.25% and is non-recourse to Goldmoney Properties. The two buildings serve as the global headquarters for a FTSE 100 Company and are let to the company under a full repairing and insurance lease producing £2.35 million (approximately CAD $4 million) of net rental income per annum. The remaining term on the two leases is 18 years through February 2042, with annual rent increases of between 1% and 5% indexed to the Retail Price Index (RPI).
Following this acquisition, Goldmoney Inc. has a liquid working capital position of approximately CAD $20 million consisting of cash and precious metals (unaudited).
Statement from Roy Sebag, Founder and CEO of Goldmoney Inc.
“With the acquisition of St James Place I and II, Goldmoney Properties now owns three long-life high quality real assets totaling over 412,000 square feet. Our property portfolio is expected to produce circa $11 million of inflation indexed net rental income in 2024 with a blended remaining lease term on our portfolio of 14.3 years. We believe that each one of our properties provides an irreplaceable purpose and usefulness within the built-up environment serving the local communities where we have invested. Our last transaction is perhaps the most attractive of all with 18 years of secure income allowing us to finance the building with confidence. Should interest rates continue to rise, we will aggressively amortise the financing from Goldmoney Properties’ significant operating cash flows. At this juncture, however, we see more evidence that short-term interest rates in the UK have reached a cycle peak and, if anything, believe that a new phase of monetary easing comes next, perhaps even sooner than we had originally anticipated in the 2023 shareholder letter.
“We set out to build Goldmoney Properties into a second diversified income stream for Goldmoney Inc. by deploying the excess capital we had earned over the 2020-2023 period. Our goal was to capitalise on the generational shift in interest rates, and we felt that it was possible for this second income stream to reach $10 million of long-term inflation indexed earnings power per annum. Because our precious metals businesses have performed so well in recent months, we have been provided with the opportunity not only to reach this goal but to exceed it a whole year earlier than expected. Moreover, we have established ourselves as a reputable counterparty in the institutional property markets and have built relationships with the most prestigious asset managers. The conviction we have demonstrated in 2023 is providing further access to off-market deal-flow and opportunities to deploy further capital in the future.
“We now have a simplified operating structure and own three prosperous businesses: the core Goldmoney.com precious metals business, Goldmoney Properties, and a significant stake in our luxury jewelry brand Menē. At the parent level, we retain significant cash and precious metals liquidity and no debt. Finally, we expect our two operating businesses to produce over $18 million of operating income in calendar 2024. This additional capital will be reinvested to grow our long-run earnings power and to repurchase shares in the open market.”
About Goldmoney Inc.
Founded in 2001, Goldmoney (TSX:XAU) is a TSX listed company invested in the real economy. The leading custodians and traders of precious metals, Goldmoney Inc. also owns and operates businesses in jewelry manufacturing and property investment. For more information about Goldmoney, visit goldmoney.com.
Media and Investor Relations inquiries:
Mark Olson
Chief Financial Officer
Goldmoney Inc.
+1 647 250 7098
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains or refers to certain forward-looking information. Forward-looking information can often be identified by forward-looking words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “expect”, “plan”, “intend”, “estimate”, “may”, “potential” and “will” or similar words suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. All information other than information regarding historical fact, which addresses activities, events or developments that the Goldmoney Inc. believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, is forward-looking information. Forward-looking information does not constitute historical fact but reflects the current expectations the Company regarding future results or events based on information that is currently available. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking information will not occur. Such forward-looking information in this release speak only as of the date hereof.
Forward-looking information in this release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: the expected value and return on investment in the Company’s real estate acquisitions, and the properties described herein (the “Properties”) in particular, the ability of the current tenants on the Properties to meet their rental obligations, the future state of the Properties and the environment surrounding it, the ability of the Company to maintain and service the indebtedness incurred to acquire the properties, including any future refinancings, and the ability of the Company to return value from the Properties to shareholders. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the global inflationary environment and its effect on real estate prices, interest rates, and the Properties in particular; the ability of the Company to integrate the Properties into its current operations; the anticipated value and income growth in connection with the Properties; the ability to maintain current and procure future commercial tenants for the Properties; the surrounding environment and infrastructure of the Properties remaining suitable; the anticipated variable interest rate for the loan used to finance the acquisition of the Properties, and the effect on this interest rate from the SONIA as set by the Bank of England; the Company’s operating history; history of operating losses; future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing; fluctuations in the market price of the Company’s common shares; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; legal and regulatory change and uncertainty; jurisdictional factors associated with international operations; foreign restrictions on the Company’s operations; product development and rapid technological change; dependence on technical infrastructure; protection of intellectual property; use and storage of personal information and compliance with privacy laws; network security risks; risk of system failure or inadequacy; the Company’s ability to manage rapid growth; competition; the ability to identify opportunities for growth internally and through acquisitions and strategic relationships on terms which are economic or at all; effectiveness of the Company’s risk management and internal controls; use of the Company’s services for improper or illegal purposes; uninsured, uninsurable, and underinsured losses; theft & risk of physical harm to personnel; precious metal trading risks; and volatility of precious metals prices & public interest in precious metals investment; and those risks set out in the Company’s most recently filed annual information form, available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, except as required by law.
