FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
22 March 2012
Safestore Holdings plc
("Safestore" or "the
Company")
Safestore Holdings plc is the self storage market
leader in the UK and Paris.
Budget Response
Safestore Holdings plc announces today that
following a proposed change to legislation in
yesterday's budget, the Group would potentially be
required to charge VAT to its customers from 1 October
2012. The rental of self storage units is currently
exempt from VAT as a licence to occupy land in the same
way as the rental of commercial property.
HMRC has invited consultation on this proposed
change and we, with the help of our advisors, intend to
actively engage in discussion with them.
This proposed legislative change would have an
industry wide impact in the UK. However, were VAT to
become levied on self storage it would have no impact on
our Parisian business which accounts for around 25% of
the Group's revenues. In the UK, around 50% of our
let space is taken by business customers and we would
expect the impact to be limited in this sector as many
businesses will simply reclaim the VAT.
Our customer licence agreements allow us to vary
pricing with 28 days notice and we would therefore expect
to be able to adapt our business model to mitigate the
impact of the proposed tax changes.
Over the past 10 years we have not been recovering
VAT on our capital expenditure given that self storage is
exempt. Any future implementation of this change would
require the reimbursement of a significant sum to the
Group under the Capital Goods Scheme, the timing of which
would be subject to agreement with HMRC.
Safestore will continue to update the market as
appropriate.
Ends
Enquiries
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Safestore Holdings plc
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020 8732 1500
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Peter Gowers, Chief Executive Officer
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Richard Hodsden, Chief Financial
Officer
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www.safestore.com
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Hudson Sandler
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020 7796 4133
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Nick Lyon / Wendy Baker
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Notes to editors:
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Safestore is the UK's largest self
storage group with 133 stores. They include 97
wholly owned stores in the UK and 24 wholly owned
stores in the Paris region together with 12 stores
under management in the UK.
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The Company provides storage to almost 45,000
personal and business customers.
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Safestore (excluding Space Maker) has a
maximum lettable area ("MLA") of 5.3
million sq ft (including the expansion pipeline
stores) of which 3.19 million sq ft is currently
occupied.
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A strong balance sheet and operational cash
flow allow Safestore to invest in continual
improvements in the operational performance of its
stores, in new store development and acquisitions
where appropriate.
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Safestore employs around 550 people.
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