Wiggins is a property group turned airport operator.

They currently own land at and or will operate 8 airports(planestations).

These are

Manston in Kent
Lahr in Germany
Parchim in Germany
Cuneo in Italy
Odense in Denmark
Smyrna in the US
Pilsen in the Czech Republic
Ajman airport

The main initial focus is on cargo operation manston is currently the 7th biggest airport in terms of cargo weight in England. cuneo is the only Airport that currently has scheduled services from 3 febuary there will be 3 flights a day to Rome and 1 flight a day to Strasbourg in the summer there will be charter flights.

As well as the airports Manston still has a valuable non airport related land bank which it plans on selling/developping and using the money generated to invest in the planestations.

Jeff,

Edmund Jackson wrote a positive post on Wiggins.(Citywire & Sunday Telegraph) Twice in the space of a week. He announced that he has bought for the long term recovery. Citing directoship buys. Most notabley Mackay. He seems confident that the mezzanaine debt will be resolved.

Are Wiggins selling there HQ?

The property is held on a 125 year lease from 29th September 1998 at
a 15% ground rent, the freeholder being the Grosvenor Estate.

Tenure:
The property is leased to the Wiggins Group PLC on a 25 year FRI
lease from 29th September 1998 at a commencing rental of 315,000
per annum subject to 5 yearly upward only rent reviews.

Tenancy:
We are instructed to seek offers in the region of 5.25M (Five Million
Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds). A purchase at this level
will show a net initial yield of 4.84% and a true equivalent yield of
6.83% taking purchasers costs at 5.75% and at an ERV of 57.50 per
sq ft overall (445,855 per annum).
The property is held by a Jersey registered SPV and on the same figures
assuming acquisition costs at 1.75% the initial yield rises to 5%
and the true equivalent yield is 7.10%.




http://www.godfreyvaughan.co.uk/html/investment/35_berkeley.pdf

Pile of dogs doo da, but then its always been the small punters favourite. Isn't this one tipped by Tom Wiinfrith some while back, another case of eating humble pie.

elrico

Given WGG balance sheet any prospective purchaser is likely to demand a yield of more than 15% reducing the sale price by two thirds

Desperate times

A small update re:Wiggins. Two planning applications have been submitted to Thanet District Council for new facilities on the Manston Business Park. One is for a frozen foods processing plant and the other for a cold foods plant with expansion possibilities into frozen foods.

The latter application from Invicta is quite clear in that it is to cater for foods imported through the airport in addition to local produce. Nineteen new jobs to be created.

The first application, Evron Produce, would create 31 new jobs in a 24Hr operation.

Clearly this would be a significant advance for Wiggins. The new Invicta plant is stated to be able to allow them to expand into imported foods so bringing more freight through the airport as well as providing income from the site rents.

Information sourced from documents posted to the Thanet District Council planning application web pages.

Mr Socs
I heard that they were going to build prefabs at Manston to house the influx of Asylum seekers into the area which is being actively enchouraged by Thanet DC.

Jeffmack
You're half right in that it was proposed to accomodate asylum seekers on the business park, however, read the report on the link below. I was going to say read the facts but since it's published by a Labour Party MP I can't in all honesty say that.

http://www.souththanetlp.freeserve.co.uk/asylum.htm

Are you talking about the Wiggins that has been suspended from market pending possible reverse takeover? Wasn't there some news about a contract with a middle east company? Horse Racing?

Angi
Yes, that's the one.

Socrates
Any news about it's return to the market?

Angi
No, nothing yet. It has been said that it would be by the end of September but I've seen no official statement to that effect.

Socrates

I've just seen the chart on 'digitallook', there's a straight line down to 0 and the volume today was 1,480,974. I can't get confirmation on any of the other webs I use (hemscott is out of use, temporarily I hope) nor does anything seem to have changed on my online dealing account with Schwab. The only piece of news dated today was with 3i, an article about Ryannair and Europe. Can't get into that either, forgotten my username/password.

Have you heard anything?

angi
No, there is no news as yet. A poster on advfn has been in touch with Wiggins and they have said they cannot make any statement whilst negotiations are in progress. They do not say with whom the negotiations are, nor do they give any forecast for completion. There is nothing to do but wait and watch.

There has been speculation, sparked by a baseless speculation by Edmond Jackson on Citywire, that the negotiations have failed. If the talks have failed he will be able to say what a clever boy he is, if they have not he will look a right idiot and will be sure to get some stick from Wiggins investors.

Thanks Socrates

A lttle information for those interested in Wiggins. Not content with pushing on with negotiating a reverse takeover, Wiggins have continued to pursue their Planestation concept by adding Melbourne (Florida USA) to their list. See link below which gives details of the airport operation:

http://www.azworldairports.com/airports/p2740mlb.htm

See also RNS which broke the news:


RNS Number:9093P
Wiggins Group Plc
18 September 2003



PRESS RELEASE

18 September 2003

Wiggins Group Plc
General Update

Wiggins Group plc is pleased to announce that it expects to be in a position to
post a Circular to Shareholders together with its 2003 Accounts during October,
at which time the suspension of trading in its ordinary shares will be lifted.

The Company is also pleased to announce we have executed contracts with the City
of Melbourne Airport Authority in Florida. Melbourne International Airport is a
commercial service airport located near Orlando, Florida. The Melbourne Airport
Authority has agreed to build a new International terminal at their expense and
have granted Wiggins operating licences for 35 years. The terminal will have
significant amount of concession space and the revenue from which will be shared
with the Airport Authority.

Melbourne selected PlaneStation because of its established airport network in
Europe and in particular because of the potential for new traffic between
Melbourne and PlaneStation's airports at London Manston in the UK and
BlackForest Lahr in Germany.

Melbourne Airport is within easy access to the major Orlando resorts, including
Disney World and Universal, Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center and Port
Canaveral which is becoming the largest cruise port in the world. The airport
also serves the world famous beach resorts of Cocoa Beach and Vero Beach.

The Company has already commenced working with the Authority in Florida to
generate passenger traffic in both directions. There is also considerable
potential for cargo as nearby airports such as Miami and Atlanta are already
working to full capacity.

Within the agreement Wiggins has an option to lease surrounding land which will
be used for retail related property development.

Wiggins intends to replicate this form of agreement in other parts of the USA.


Further Enquires:

Isabel Crossley St Brides Media 020 7242 44 77



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

Just joined the site - from Spain-today and this is my first time on the
noticeboard.I had just got the above-18 Sept-from www.londonstockexchange.com.
I think it is exceptionally good news and I feel the company will rise to-
excuse the pun-unforeseen heights.This is especially so if these deals will
be replicated in other areas in U.S.A.Also,I feel the----retail related
property development presents an outstanding opportunity to use their
property skills.

I also think Edmond Jacksons position-re failed talks-is irrelevant as it
appears that The Bottom Line is they have worked out financial facilities
to support all their programmes.

Hopefully,some of you will comment on above as I am extremely interested
in reading more.

A couple of articles from todays newspapers

Wiggins, the troubled airports and property group, is expected to announce this week that it has refinanced the business with a 47m placing of shares and convertible debt.The funding will value the company at around 70m and will be used to replace some of Wiggins' existing debt, which stood at 77m at the end of 2002. It will also provide working capital for the next two years.

The group is also expected to announce next week that trading in its shares will shortly resume - four months after they were suspended.

Wiggins' management has also had discussions about selling the company to Terra Firma, the private equity group run by Guy Hands, the high-profile financier. Several of Wiggins' airfield's are former Ministry of Defence sites and are close to housing acquired by Terra Firma in a sell-off of MOD property.

The deal is believed to have foundered because of Terra Firma's concerns about potential environmental liabilities arising from the military use in the past of the airfields.

LNC Property, the Scottish real estate group owned by Dublin-based tycoon Brian McCabe, has also held discussions with Wiggins about a reverse takeover of the airports group. The talks are thought to be ongoing.

Wiggins' management believes that the company has assets that are potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

The group has seven airports, including Manston in Kent, and extensive land holdings that include the proposed City Racecourse development at Fairlop in Essex.

However, analysts have argued that Wiggins' "Plane Station" strategy of developing a low-cost network of airports for freight throughout Europe remains unproven. Shares in the company declined in value until they were suspended at 4.75p in July.

The Sunday Times article
Auditors censured over Wiggins profits
Lucinda Kemeny

THE AUDITORS of an airports and property company that overstated its profits by more than 40m have been rapped by the professions disciplinary body.
The accusations focus on audits of Wiggins from 1996 to 2000 and come from the Accountants Joint Disciplinary Scheme, the body responsible for disciplining members of the accountancy profession.

The complaints criticise Lance Blackstone, a former non-executive director of Wiggins; HLB Kidsons, the companys former auditor; and Nicholas Watson and Glenn Start, who were partners of Kidsons. The auditing firm is now part of Baker Tilly.

They have all been accused of being involved in over-stating the profits, though in the earlier years, only Kidsons and Blackstone are charged.

Additionally, Kidsons, Watson and Blackstone are accused of wrongly handing over shares worth 5m to a company owned by Wigginss chief executive Oliver Iny.

The allegations threaten to wreck Wigginss attempted merger with the larger LNC, the Scottish property group.

Chris Dickson, JDS executive counsel, refused to comment on the case itself.

However, he said: Im sorry to say that the company declined to co-operate. It was asked on several occasions for a copy of a document and refused to produce it. There is no legal power to compel the company but it does mean that the regulator has had to work with one hand tied behind its back.

Four complaints have been laid in all. Two relate to inappropriate accounting in the annual reports: the first covering the anticipation of profit for each of the five years ending March 31, 2000; the second relating to the capitalisation of start-up and development costs.

The Financial Reporting Review Panel, which reviews whether accounts comply with accounting standards, made Wiggins re-state its accounts for this period, with the effect of turning profits into losses for each of the five years (see table).

The auditors have also been accused of miscalculating a 1999 deal between Wiggins and Inys company Castlegold. In 1994, Wiggins agreed to buy Castlegolds Fairfield site, 174 acres in Bedfordshire, for 1.2m worth of Wiggins shares.

The deal was to take account of any share issues made since August 1993 to reflect any dilution in share value. However, Kidsons included shares which had been sold, with the result that Castlegold got 25.3m shares too many worth more than 5m at the time.

jeffmack,

Thanks for article as I hold 250,000 shares so am naturally very concerned as to
what is happening.

Analysts analysis of Planestation is totally incorrect as there is no mention
of the Contract between Melbourne,Florida and Manston,Kent re Disneyland....etc
and the potential for this type of contract to be replicated throughout U.S.A.
rgds ajren

My understanding is that the re-financing is definately complete, I've just bought some shares today through the placing and that the company may re-list as planestation!, my broker looking for a return before xmas to the market or shortly after with good level of interest in the refinanced company.