Kelly in for Port Bouvard cut

LISTED property developer Port Bouvard Ltd has sold its 18-hole golf course and some property assets to golf course director John Kelly for $20 million. Mr Kelly, the director of The Cut, will purchase the golf course and the adjoining resort hotel and villa development sites in the estate’s beachside Southport precinct via his unlisted public investment entity, Vive Holdings. Announcing the terms of the sale, Port Bouvard managing director Ross Neumann said the company had already received a non-refundable $1 million deposit from Mr Kelly and Vive Holdings. The first payment of $12.8 million is due to be made in December, with two subsequent payments of $3.1 million due by September 2006 and June 2007. The agreement was announced after expressions of interest for the sale of the marina at Port Bouvard had closed after being extended for a week following strong market interest, Mr Neumann said. He said the company had initially planned to sell the assets at a later date. “The sale of the golf course and marina has occurred a bit earlier than we expected, and we had anticipated a more conservative figure than what was negotiated,” Mr Neumann said. Assessment of the bids for the marina, situated in the estate’s Eastport precinct on the Peel Estuary, is expected to be completed this month, he added. Mr Neumann said the titles for the golf course, the club house and the villa site would be transferred to the new owners with the payment of the first tranche by December 1 this year. The resort hotel site will change hands when the company receives the second tranche in September next year. Mr Neumann said the sale left 380 lots remaining at Port Bouvard, 20 per cent of the entire estate. Mr Kelly established the Sandalford Private Golf Estate in Baldivis in 2002 and was appointed as a consulting director of The Cut in August last year. The sale occurred as the company announced its full-year dividend of 15 cents per share, taking the total fully franked dividend over the year to 25 cents.