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TWST: Can you begin with a brief overview and historical sketch of Helical Bar (LSE: HLCL.L)?

Mr. McNair Scott: Helical Bar is a medium sized property development and investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It has a market capitalization of around £230 million. The Company operates across all fields of the UK real estate market. Helical has two business streams: It is one of the largest developers of office and retail space in the UK, and over the last six years has had a development program valued at well over £1.5 billion. It also actively manages a substantial investment portfolio of commercial properties. The investment portfolio had passing rents of £31 million, and a final estimated rental growth of £45 million at the last balance sheet date. Helical turned itself into a property company in 1984, when Michael Slade, the now managing director joined the company. I joined as Finance Director a year later. It has been the top performer in the property sector in the UK over 20, 15, 10 and 5 years and has given a compound rate of return to the shareholders of over 27% per annum since it became a public company back in 1984. As I mentioned earlier, the Company has these two business streams, development and investment. On the development side we have two sorts of customers; there are tenants who occupy the space that we develop, but then more particularly there are the institutional investors who are looking for a well let and well sited investment with potential for growth. Helical is among the largest providers of such space to the UK institutions, and indeed to some of the European institutions; they are our partners in the development, they bear the financial risk, while we bear the development risk. When the buildings are let we share the profits about 50-50. The other stream of our business is the investment side, and we are one of the most active property investment companies in the UK. We look for opportunities across the UK where we can add value. Again, this strategy has been very successful over the last 10-15 years.

TWST: Looking forward to the next 12-24 months, what can you highlight on the company's agenda?

Mr. McNair Scott: The next year we are going to see a substantial increase in the free cash flow on our investment portfolio. We have got a lot of rent free periods that are expiring, rent reviews that are coming through and some new lettings that are underway. Whereas we started this cycle with about £2 million surplus of rent over interest, we will hopefully be in the region of £24-£25 million surplus rent over interest before admin costs, fairly soon. That underpins our whole business. At the same time we hope that we will continue to generate trading and development profits. The development cycle has essentially come to an end, but we have some buildings which are let and which, as we build out, we can take profits on. There are also some trading profits coming through. Probably the most exciting news is that we are using this comparatively slack time to put together a portfolio of potential developments such as 1 million sq ft at White City in West London and two or three large schemes for the next cycle.

TWST: What is the essential message about the company that you like to communicate to potential investors?

Mr. McNair Scott: We've been very successful in the past, the same model is in place, our management is still very enthusiastic to do well and we would like people to believe that we can deliver the same kind of returns over the next 5-10 years, as we have done in the last 5-10 year