Sutton Harbour to Quit AIM as It Sells Plymouth Assets

Sutton Harbour Group (LON: SUH), the Plymouth-based marine operator behind Sutton Harbour Marina, King Point Marina and Plymouth Fisheries, said today it will pursue an orderly sale of its property portfolio and cancel its AIM listing.

Shares closed at 4.25p on Thursday, near the bottom of a 52-week range of 1.6p to 6.96p, before slipping to 4.1p in early trade today, though the stock trades so thinly that the move should not be read as a strong reaction.

The Board’s rationale is that the AIM share price has long sat well below the value of the underlying waterfront assets, which were independently valued at £45.72 million at the end of March, while group net debt has climbed to £26.03 million. Selling property piecemeal to repay that debt is easier, the company argues, without the roughly £200,000 a year cost of maintaining a public listing and the constraints a quotation places on disposals.

The plan already has the votes needed to pass. Controlling shareholder FB Investors, which holds 75.38% of the shares but is contractually barred from voting on this resolution, backs the move, while the two largest minority holders, Crystal Amber Fund and Rotolok Holdings, together holding around 15%, have agreed under a new Shareholders’ Agreement to vote in favour at the general meeting on 22 September. New articles will give minority holders pre-emption and drag/tag-along rights, and the UK Takeover Code will keep applying for two years.

If approved, the last day of AIM dealings is expected to be 29 September, with cancellation effective from 7am the following day. From then, shareholders lose access to a public market and must instead rely on an informal, non-guaranteed share-matching service run by the company secretary, with any surplus cash from asset sales returned only after senior debt and a related-party loan are repaid.