Duke Royalty pours another £1m into Brownhills

Alternative capital solutions provider Duke Royalty announced a further contribution of £1m into its royalty partner Brownhills on Monday.

The AIM-traded company said Brownhills was one of three subsidiary companies of United Glass Group - formerly Brownhills Investments - which it described as a UK-based independent glass merchant and processor, established in the 1970s.

As it had announced on 24 April, Duke originally invested £6.5m into Brownhills, with an option to increase - at Duke's sole option - its investment by a further £1m at any time prior to 31 December 2019.

To that end, Duke said that in support of Brownhills' growth plans, it had decided to exercise that right and invest the additional cash, with the additional investment being made on the same initial cash-on-cash yield of more than 13%, and the same duration of 30 years.

Post the additional investment, Duke's aggregate exposure to Brownhills had increased to £7.5m.

Duke also reported that the first adjustment factor period for Brownhills on the initial £6.5m investment ended on 30 November, and that the turnover growth for the consolidated Brownhills group year-on-year exceeded the maximum possible adjustment factor of 6% upwards.

As a result, the payments due to Duke would increase from April 2019 on a cash basis by 6%.

Following that positive adjustment on the original £6.5m, as well as the initial cash-on-cash yield on the new £1m investment, Brownhills’ increased payments to Duke would now total about £1.06m per annum from April.

Use of proceeds for the additional £1m investment included acquiring the freehold property from which one of Brownhill's key operating subsidiaries operated, as well as buying additional toughening and processing equipment to enable Brownhills to satisfy the high level of demand that it was currently experiencing throughout the group, Duke explained.

“We are very pleased to make this additional investment into our existing partner Brownhills,” said Duke Royalty chief executive officer Neil Johnson.

“Brownhills has experienced strong year on year turnover growth which has resulted in Duke benefitting from its third consecutive maximum adjustment factor reset.

“Given that this additional investment is primarily being used to fund growth initiatives within Brownhills we are hopeful that this turnover growth will be continued into the future.”