(Alliance News) - Bonhill Group PLC on Thursday saw its shares fall after announcing its plan to re-register as a private limited company, posting a narrowed annual loss and revenue decline.
Shares in the Woking, England-based media company specialising in business information, events and data analytics fell by 37% to 3.76 pence in London on Thursday.
This followed Bonhill's announcement on Wednesday that it was selling InvestmentNews LLC to Key Media Business Information US Inc for USD4.1 million, and raising GBP4.8 million through a tender offer of 48.0 million shares at 10 pence each.
InvestmentNews is the New York-based news company for the financial advisory community.
After the close of this tender offer, Bonhill seeks to cancel its shares and re-register as a private limited company.
Bonhill said its pretax loss for 2022 had narrowed by 26% to GBP6.3 million from GBP8.5 million, whilst revenue had fallen by 9.1% to GBP14.9 million from GBP16.4 million at the same point last year.
The company said that this was due to the need to run through some credits from events cancelled by COVID, and that its margins were hit as events were sub-scaled, as well as continued lockdowns in Asia.
This was worsened by generally poor media performances in the year, with asset managers reluctant to release discretionary marketing spend due to macroeconomic factors.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation swung to a loss of GBP1.4 million from a break even position last year.
In the year ahead, Bonhill has announced its intention to complete a tender offer soon and return remaining cash of InvestmentNews to shareholders.
"2022 was a pivotal year for Bonhill which started with a fundraise and a change of leadership, leading to the implementation of a strategic review and a formal sales process," said Chair Jonathan Glasspool.
"Despite the best efforts of the global team and the considerable number of structural and cost-saving changes put in place this year, the board decided that it was in the shareholders' best interest to explore different avenues for the future of the company.
By Will Neill, Alliance News reporter
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