Stivala Group Finance plc - Change in Shareholding

On 25 November 2020, Stivala Group Finance plc announced that Mr Carlo Stivala – who is a major shareholder of Stivala Group – has intimated his intention to leave the business and relinquish all his ownership interest in the Group. In this respect, certain immovable properties currently owned by the Group (valued at €81.2 million) will be transferred to CAST Holdings Limited which, in turn, is a company whose beneficiaries are Mr Carlo Stivala and his descendants.

In view of the above, Stivala Group also provided a ‘pro forma‘ Statement of Financial Position as at 30 June 2020 including the effect of the transaction as well as an uplift in the fair values of the Group’s various properties. This shows that total assets would increase by 13.6% to €256.9 million whilst total liabilities increase marginally to €102 million. As a result, total equity would expand by 23% to €154.8 million whilst the gearing ratio drops from 37.8% to 33.1%. The Group also explained that during the 2019 financial year, the properties earmarked to be transferred to CAST Holdings Limited generated an operating profit of €2.4 million. Accordingly, had the transaction taken place in 2019, the operating profit of Stivala Group would have been 23% lower (from €10.5 million to €8.1 million) whilst the profit before tax would have been 32% lower (from €7.6 million to €5.2 million). Under this hypothetical scenario, the interest cover (based on the operating income) would have been 2.82 times compared to the actual coverage of 3.66 times.