13 Dec 02. During the announcement of the sale of part of QinetiQ to the Carlyle group a number of questions were asked with regard to property values being transferred as part of the deal. Extracts from a statement are given below:

“At the MoD press briefing last interest was expressed in the figures being put forward and expressed some disbelief at the £500m enterprise value figure given the amount of property assets we have.

The property assets are NOT calculated into the Enterprise value which is a City definition made up of debt, liability and equity and representative of what a buyer/shareholder is prepared to pay. The property assets are laid out in the annual review which is on our website and I can confirm that we have the leasehold on most property (which remains with MoD) and the freehold on a small number of properties – which includes Farnborough. Farnborough is very valuable and it actually makes up for a significant majority (2/3rds) of the total value. But the main thing here is that the Enterprise value is not the figure you use to equate actual total assets of a company.”