CORPORATE OVERVIEW

Guinness Peat Group is an investment holding company with strategic interests in a number of businesses, mainly in Europe and Australia and also owns Coats plc (www.coats.com), the world market leader in industrial yarns and threads and textile consumer crafts.

GPG is listed on the London, Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchanges and, as at 31 December 2012, it had a market capitalisation of approximately £478 million and Shareholders’ Funds at the same date of £478 million.

On 11 February 2011 the Company announced its intention to undertake an orderly value realisation of its investment portfolio. Since that time the Board and management have devoted their efforts to the implementation of a strategy directed towards turning assets held into cash at values reasonably commensurate with their underlying value given risk and timing considerations. It is the Board’s intention that GPG will be re-launched as Coats as the various arrangements for the disposal of assets, return of value to shareholders and establishment of Coats as an independent business are completed. The current target for completion of this transition is the second half of 2013, however both external and internal events may impact on this.

The transition plan includes the following key initiatives:

Reconstitution of the Board to ensure it has the requisite skills to develop Coats as a stand-alone, listed entity for the long term;
A continued focus on enhancing the business performance and strategic positioning of Coats;
Finalisation of support for the UK pension schemes;
Determination of the optimal capital structure necessary to provide the stand-alone Coats entity with the resources and mix of debt and equity required for it to achieve its strategic objectives and optimise its capital markets positioning; and
Evaluation and implementation of the most efficient method to return the maximum amount of excess cash to GPG shareholders, taking into consideration all of the above factors.