Plymouth’s Sutton Harbour Group Plc has raised £3.5m from its shareholders and will use the money to fund new developments at the city’s waterfront and potentially the former airport site.
The AIM-listed company saw an open offer of about 14million shares snapped up by existing shareholders, raising the firm about £3.5m.
The issue was approved by a general meeting of shareholders and an application was made to the London Stock Exchange for the shares to be traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) from Tuesday, August 3.
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Philip Beinhaker, executive chairman of Sutton Harbour Group, said: "The board is delighted to see the support for the open offer from a broad range of shareholders including a large number of minority shareholders, some of which have requested allocation in excess of their basic entitlement.
“We appreciate the positive reaction to the call to raise new equity capital which will assist the company to continue with its programme to bring a number of property development projects to fruition and the confidence this shows in the group's strategic plan".
The firm has previously said construction is due to start “imminently” on the 14-apratment Harbour Arch Quay tower at Sutton Harbour. Work was scheduled to begin in 2020 but it was delayed by the Covid pandemic.
Sutton Harbour Group is also progressing plans for further skyscrapers on the waterfront, including the 21-storey Sugar Quay Tower and two other developments of 16 and 13 floors.
And it also claims to have “ready proposals” for the 113-acre ex-airport site, at Derriford in the north of the city, which has been unused, apart from as storage, for nearly 10 years.
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A report on the group’s results for the year to the end of March 2021, published in early July, said the open share offer was intended “to support the completion of the Harbour Arch Quay development, provide headroom to invest in other strategic sites and support the costs of planning and professional fees”.
As regards the former airport land, given a five-year protection from development in the 2019 Joint Local Plan, the report only said: “The site is safeguarded from development until 2024. The group has ready proposals for a deliverable alternative use of the 113 acre site which meet the social and economic needs of Plymouth.”
But Sutton Harbour Group is free to make progress at the waterfront, on land it owns. It has been planning the Harbour Arch Quay block since 2017 and now is ready to start digging.
The firm’s annual results document said: “The first new development project at Sutton Harbour in a decade, Harbour Arch Quay, due to start on site imminently.”
It added: “The group has made significant progress with its stated regeneration business plans. After further delays resulting from the Covid crisis disruption, construction of the 14-apartment building known as Harbour Arch Quay is due to start this summer.”
The report to investors said the building is due for completion in just a year's time and said it had arranged separate development financing, which is subject to completion, to fund the Harbour Arch Quay scheme.
“Marketing of the 14 high quality waterfront apartments will soon be underway with good levels of informal interest already reported,” the report said.
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Meanwhile, the report also confirmed that in December 2020 the company completed the purchase of a site just east of the Harbour, on Sutton Road, and immediately submitted an application for two residential-led developments on this site.
These are the Sutton Road East and St John’s Bridge developments, two residential schemes of 16 and 13 floors respectively split between six separate blocks, with a combined cost of £50m.
Sutton Harbour Group now plans to start work on the first of these buildings in the middle of next year, and its report said: “The group is working diligently with the local authority on the finalisation of planning applications for the two buildings on the Sutton Road site. The group is hopeful of a start on site with the first of the Sutton Road developments in Summer 2022.”
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The annual results revealed Sutton Harbour Group had made a £2m loss, but that this was mainly due to Covid and lockdown issues, and it was expected that finances would recover.
In the past, Sutton Harbour Group has said that once it has built the Sutton Road East and St John’s Bridge developments it will look at creating a 20-storey Sugar Quay skyscraper, next to them but right on the waterside.