FINN(COM) DAILY RECORD: MONDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2004
Compiled by J. Brock (FINN)
PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR FERRY COMPANY IN FIH TAKE OVER BID
By J. Brock (FINN)
The Falkland Islands Holdings plc (FIH) board have announced that an offer will be made by Dawnay, Day Corporate Finance Limited on behalf of FIH for the whole of the issued share capital of the Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company plc (PHFC) not already owned by FIH on 06 October 2004. Originally, the offer consideration comprised 7 new FIH shares for each PHFC share or a part Cash Alternative of £25.00 in cash and £8.50 in loan shares (i.e. £38.50) each PHFC Share. The loan notes would be redeemed in instalments over four years.
Since the Offer announcement, discussions have taken place between FIH and its advisors and Grant Thornton Corporate Finance, the independent financial advisor to the board of PHFC, which lead to FIH agreeing to improve the terms of the Part Cash Alternative. Also resulting from the discussions, Grant Thornton Corporate Finance agreed to advise the PHFC shareholders to accept the revised Part Cash Alternative. As announced by the FIH board, the consideration payable for each PHFC share under the Part Cash Alternative will be £25.00 in cash and £10.00 in loan notes. This is an increase of £1.50 in loan notes. These loan notes will be redeemed in instalments over the next three years. According to the announcement, the Share Offer is unchanged.
As a result, Grant Thornton Corporate Finance has advised the PHFC Board that it considers the terms of the Part Cash Alternative under the Offer to be reasonable so far as PHFC shareholders are concerned. Further advice is that the Board of PHFC recommend to PHFC shareholders to accept the Offer. Grant Thornton Corporate Finance understands that whilst the directors of PHFC have taken its advice into account, they are unable to recommend acceptance of the Offer because, amongst other things, they consider that it falls short of a price that fully reflects the future potential of the Company in the light of recent transactions in the domestic ferry sector.
Said David Hudd, Chairman of FIH, “The uncertainty inherent in any bid situation distracts management and staff from the operations of the business. I said in yesterday’s BBC South interview that there was some uncertainty as to the ownership of the ferry company and we were looking to resolve that uncertainty by making a bid for it. What I meant by this is that I believe that now that FIH has announced its formal Offer, this period of uncertainty as to the future ownership of the Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company will soon be over. If the offer succeeds, the Company will become a subsidiary of FIH, and if it should fail, the Takeover Code will limit FIH’s ability to make another offer for 12 months.”
He went on to say, “I believe that the Offer is a generous one and am pleased that Grant Thornton Corporate Finance considers the £35.00 per share Part Cash Alternative to be reasonable and that it has advised the board of PHFC to accept it. The value of the share offer fluctuates with the FIH share price and today values each PHFC Share at over £40.00.”
BACON’S BACK AT THE TROUGH
A Report for FIBS by Liz Elliot (LE) 07 October 2004
The Trough, home of the Fighting Pig Band, has been closed now for a spot of refurbishment and an extension to the premises. We’ll be back to that in a moment but I’ve got Len McGill (LM) and Peter King (PK), two members of the band with me.
LE: First of all, perhaps you could remind us, when did the Trough first open its doors to the public?
PK: April 1994 we first opened the doors and it was actually a party. I think it was Claudette Anderson’s birthday.
LE: It’s been going really well ever since. Just going back a bit, who were the original band members then? For various reasons, there have been a couple of changes to the line-up.
PK: The same bunch we’ve got now. Len, Gerard and myself. But we started with Charles Keenleyside, who stayed for a few months and then - I guess there was something wrong with the music - he went to New Zealand. Then Ray Robson took over from Charles and played until 18 or 19 months ago when, unfortunately, he injured his finger in a Land Rover winch. So, he’s been off the music firm since then. We’ve had Tim Cotter playing.
LE: It seems to have been a pretty successful venture. Roughly, on average, how often does the Trough open? And, do you think a lot of the success is due to it being open on a regular basis?
LM: We open twice a month - normally the last weekend and the first weekend every month. I think that has helped the success because we are not over-exposing ourselves and the Trough is somewhere the people can look forward to going to. It’s a late night venue of which there are very few around the town.
LE: Now, you don’t only open for your own Trough Nights but you also have hired the building out in the past for private functions - weddings, birthdays, that sort of thing. How good has that been for the trough?
LM: It gets people through the doors and different clientele. We hire out to functions that are well managed. We don’t hire out to all and sundry. But, if people come along and have a good case - if they are having a wedding reception or a company meeting or Christmas party - something like that - then we are more than happy to let people rent our premises.
LE: You will still keep that policy once you re-open the doors.
LM: We envisage that, yes. But again, it must be a well-managed function. The main reason is that the band has a great deal of expensive equipment in the premises and we don’t want all and sundry falling all over it and making a mess.
LE: I totally understand that because some of the kit is worth an awful lot of money and don’t want to have to replace it as well. It isn’t always that easy.
LM: Absolutely.
LE: Perhaps you could tell us a bit about some of the nights you’ve had here in the trough. You must have had a few knees ups, really.
PK: It’s always been great fun, really. It’s a live music venue primarily and that’s our business. That’s what we do, that’s what we like doing and it seems that’s what the people who come here like getting into. We’ve had Bob Pearce down from the UK, Geoff Rich from Status Quo, Liz and Jock have played here, Alan Stroud, Martin Plato - they’ve all been great nights. We’re really enthused when we get other people in to play and it just helps to carry the spirit of the place.
LM: We were privileged to also have some of our older musicians - people that we look up to like Les Lee and the late Angus Jaffray and Owen McPhee, just to name a few. And, it gave us great pleasure to be able to invite them into our venue and have them play.
LE: Lets move on to the work you’ve been doing over the past few weeks. What made you decide to add an extension to the building? What reasoning was behind it?
LM: Something we realised early on was that the place tends to get really full. Whilst that’s great for an atmosphere, we thought that our customers deserved a little bit more space to enjoy themselves in. And, by putting an extension on, people can chose whether to be in the main auditorium and dance, or if they want something a little quieter, then they can go to the lounge area and listen to the music there or just socialise. So, it’s expanding service to our customers.
LE: How long has it taken to actually get this far, because you have been closed for some time now.
PK: The last gig was on the 15th of May and people went off on holidays and overseas and the builders came in. Any Job came in and started work. And, we are just coming to the end of that process now. It won’t actually be finished on Saturday when we open. But the substantial part of the work will be done. Other stuff is on the next boat, as they say.
LE: I suspect that this has been pretty costly, as refurbishments generally are. How have you managed to cover your costs? Is it mainly from money raised on Trough Nights?
LM: It’s been a combination of that and Standard Chartered Bank for loaning us a certain amount of money to carry out the project.
LE: Earlier you did mention your celebrity guests that you have had. Do you have any more plans to bring down more guests at any stage?
PK: I guess there’s always plans but it depends really on what other folks are up to and how much we can afford to pay because we normally put in some money from Trough earnings over the time they are here. And, also we have had some support from the Shackleton Fund. In the past, which has really helped a lot. Most times we either break even or make a loss on such things. So, with the refurbishment programme running, we are not flushed with cash to actually spend on visiting guests. There are a few people in the pipeline that could come down in the future.
LE: The big question - when is the Trough re-opening?
PK: This Saturday the ninth.
LE: What time:
LM: Doors open at 1100. The band will be up and running by midnight and everyone is welcome. We want you to come and have a look at us, see what we are doing. The place isn’t complete. I am sure that down the line somewhere, when we’ve got it complete in a couple months’ time, we will have a big official opening then. Saturday is for people to see what we’ve done and see a work in progress.
LE: The main area is exactly as it was previously.
LM: That’s right. We’ve cleaned the carpets and given it a lick of paint here and there. The carpeting will be replaced in about 2 months’ time when we finish the floor coverings in the new piece.
PK: The only real change to the old trough, if you like, is the fact that the East entrance door is no more. It’s just a hole in the wall.
LE: I did notice as I came in the door, I was tripping over all the space. As you go through what was the door originally, you’ve got a big long room on the right-hand side. What plans have you got for this?
PK: I think we put on the planning application it was going to be a quiet room. Reports coming back from the Planning and Building Committee said that there was no such thing at the trough. They might be right but it is a quieter room. It’s created a bit more space for folks to move into and lounge about if they don’t want to be where people are dancing.
LE: There’s a series of little doors to the left as we come out of the door that used to be. What is this first door on my left?
LM: This is the storage cupboard for cleaning supplies and the material which is, at the moment, stashed around the back of the stage and stuff like that.
LE: Then we come to another door that backs on to what used to be the Ladies Toilets.
LM: This is the new Gents loo. And there’s two W. C. s and there will be a urinal trough.
LE: What’s going to happen to the little men’s room that was?
LM: It’s going to remain there but it’s going to be closed to the public once we bring the new toilets online and it will become the Sound Engineer’s room, therefore releasing the bar area that he now uses. When the licensing law changes, and gets itself into the 21st century, we will be able to sell beer and wine and carry on in a civilised manner.
LE: There’s another room here, not quite as large as the one you called your quiet room. What are you using this one for?
PK: It’s already becoming a bit of a junk room but the original design was for an office and a junk room. If we have bits of kit that needs replacing, we have run out of space for it so spare bits of amplifiers and drums and that sort of stuff. I guess we will empty our houses of that sort of stuff and bring it up here. It’s surprising what you accumulate in 10 years.
LE: Just a reminder - how do people get into the Trough? Anything change there?
LM: Not really. Customers approach the Trough from the east end. There is still a gravelled area for taxis and stuff. And there’s a nice concrete step there and a nice set of sturdy steps to walk up complete with handrails. The door is still situated on the east end of the building. They will then walk into this passageway, which runs the full length of this extension.
LE: What about costs to get into the trough. Are they going to stay the same, Pete?
PK: For the immediate future, yes. When we get the new bit finished, and up and running, we do intend to put the price up to £4.00. It’s been £3.00 for 10 years now. And, we’ve come to the point where we can’t actually fund developments from that kind of income. So, we will adjust the price in a couple of months’ time.
LE: Who has been involved with the refurbishments and the building work?
LM: Any Job have done us proud. They worked right through the winter in some cold, windy days. They got the extension out of Pete’s and my head and on to the end of the Trough. Obviously, the Falkland Islands Company, from whom we purchased most of the materials. And, of course, all our customers who have given us the encouragement to go and do it.
PK: And, Paul Chapman, who came up tonight to get us plastered! We are grateful because he’s in the middle of building his own house.
LE: Good luck with the trough. I hope it all goes really well for you and I just might not miss out.
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Note: You can visit the Fighting Pig Band’s website at http://www.fightingpigband.com.
FIBS NEWS DIRECT: 11 OCTOBER 2004
BIO-MEN VISIT THE CAMP:
The two bio-security consultants, who are in the Islands at the moment, have been getting a flavour of the Camp today. They are at Fox Bay, where they have been meeting with Councillor Roger Edwards and reviewing operations on the St. Brandon. Tomorrow, Bruce Simpson and John Halstrom will be returning to Stanley. In the morning, they are scheduled to meet with reps from the FIC and are having lunch at Government House. During the Afternoon, they will be meeting with the media.
FUNDRAISER:
More than £1,000.00 was raised at the fundraising night at the Narrows on Saturday, The Night was organised by bar staff in a bid to send money to send to the Red Cross Beslan Appeal and Stephen Jaffray Memorial Fund. I went along to the event and spoke to one of the organisers and asked Liz Boarding what inspired them to organise a fundraiser.
LB: I was listening to reports of those children suffering and I felt awful.
SF: What have you organised for the fundraiser
LB: We’ve got a band, “Extra Smooth” playing and lots of people have given us raffle prizes. We have cocktails, curry, and everything.
SF: What sort of response are you expecting?
LB: Hopefully good.
SF: Have you any idea how much in total you are going to raise tonight?
LB: I have no idea but we did have a “ Mystery Sponsor” give £100.00 in an envelope yesterday, which is fantastic. But I don’t know how much.
SF: I believe you’ve got raffles on as well. Is it all going to the Beslan Appeal?
LB: Yes. All the raffle money will go towards that. Money taken on the Door will go towards the Stephen Jaffray Memorial Fund. Hopefully, there will be a good turn-out.
SF: As soon as I came in the door, I saw a Book of Condolence. Who all signed it?
LB: The Infant/Junior school had the book to start with. They did an amazing job. Mr. Farrow took pictures of the school. The children signed their names and today we have gone around with the book and selling raffles. Thank-you to everyone. Next week, it will go to the Community School and the kiddies can sign it there. Next week, sometime, it will go on to the Governor, who will send it to the British Ambassador in Russia, who will pass it on to the people at Beslan for us.
SF: After the event, Liz told me how much money was raised during the course of the evening.
LB: We raised £1,116.86
SF: And, were you pleased with the turnout?
LB: Yes. It was a brilliant turnout. Thank you to everybody who’se donated money or prizes for our raffle.
ST. HELENA CHRISTMAS MESSAGES:
The first Christmas messages for St. Helena were recorded on Saturday night at the narrows Bar. I asked John Clifford (JC) about the annual recording.
JC: Basically, it’s our annual radio programme. It goes out on Radio St. Helena and the Christmas TV Programme goes out on St. Helena TV.
SF: How did the night go?
JC: A little bit slow. We didn’t get as many people as we had hoped but we are starting a lot earlier this year than we normally do. Hopefully it will pick up but there will be more occasions in the near future.
SF: So, when will people have chances to record their messages again?
JC: We haven’t set a schedule up yet but we will publish it like we normally do I know this year we need to get the tape up to St. Helena a bit earlier. It’s got to go at the beginning of December instead of the middle of December. That’s because of the ship. We will publicise a schedule as soon as we got one worked out.
NEW INITIATIVE:
A new initiative being launched in the Falklands is being launched in the Falklands this week. The “Book Start Scheme” encourages younger children in reading. The scheme was started in Birmingham and now distributes to 92% of children in the UK. And, will make its Falklands debut in the Community Library at 1400 on Friday afternoon. Sue Evans (SE) from Camp Education came into the studio and told us about the scheme.
SE: The Book Start Scheme primarily operates in the UK and is based on distributing books to children at a very early age. The first distribution is at 8 months old for people to share books with their children, to encourage people to share books with their children. It’s totally free - to be gifted and given out at these health checks. The scheme here will work in conjunction with the Health visitor and the library. At a baby’s 8-month health check, he will be given a present of a book bag. In the bag there are two free books, a recommended book list, an invitation to our library so people are aware that books are free to be borrowed. Elaine has brought in an excellent range of lovely new books. There is another book bag at two years. This is an optional one. In the UK after having given the first one at 8 months, we can buy in the second one, which we decided to do. There is a nylon reading bag and two books in it, a number-line poster. It’s got another recommended booklist more appropriate for a two year old child and some name tags to put in your own library of books.
MEETING:
There is only one meeting taking place this week. The Environmental Committee will meet in the Liberation Room in the Secretariat on Friday at 0900 and items on the agenda include egging, various licence applications, the conservation strategy and environmental studies budget.
AWARD-WINNING SAUSAGE:
A new brand of award-winning sausage can be found in the West Store. Trial amounts arrived in the Islands from Devon meat company, West-ways last month, after Purchasing Manager, Susan Knipe came across them in Birmingham and said that she really liked the sausage and the way it was presented. She was at a food and drink expo in March looking for new products and ideas. Marketing manager of the Company, Charles Boreham, said that this is the first time we have established contact within the Islands. He continued that it was great when he was on the phone and he could hear seagulls in the background. Devon Meat Company, West-ways, exports the sausages worldwide to over 500 retailers including the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal.
HARBOUR, SHIPPING AND FISHING NEWS:
The Valliant called yesterday morning for the fishing grounds and the Dumbarton Castle left this morning for her first patrol. A Spanish trawler will be arriving in tomorrow for licensing for Blue Whiting and Hoki. The Surimi vessel is catching well at more than 100 tonnes a day. Toothfish catches are high and one Ray vessel is catching more than 8 tonnes a day. There are 26 vessels in the zone at the moment, 22 of which are targeting finfish. The majority have obtained good catches of Blue Whiting and Hoki. Over the weekend, the average catch per ship was 17 tonnes.
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