4 Jul 2012 11:16
4 July 2012
Legendary Investments Plc
("Legendary" or the "Company")
Investee Updates and New Investments
Progress continues to be made at Bosques Energeticos EBE S.A. de C.V. ("Bosques"). In late 2011, Bosques shipped and rooted elite Pongamia scions in Mexico. This allowed the creation of the first elite Pongamia mother garden in Mexico. Accordingly, Legendary increased its stake in Bosques from 15.4% to 30.8%. Bosques' strategy has now been further developed to cultivate large areas of bio diesel producing plantations. A number of parties have shown interest in Bosques and management intends to find suitable partners to cultivate large plantations. The Board of Legendary remains excited about the real and potential value creation that Bosques offers.
Following completion of the publisher demo by Undrawn Reality Limited ("UR") (formerly Raw Games Limited), further game development continued and preliminary discussions with publishers were also held. While earlier this year, we were in a position to report that the business was progressing, it subsequently became evident that advances with game development and associated discussions had slowed dramatically. From talks with UR, it is now clear that the timeframe to develop the game has extended considerably and it is no longer considered justifiable for Legendary to devote management resources to UR. Legendary has concluded that it will not receive a return on UR in the foreseeable future and has written its investment down to zero. While a disappointing outcome, Legendary's initial cash investment was nominal and the decision has freed-up time for the Directors to pursue other investment opportunities.
The Company is pleased to announce that it has invested £50,000 in cash in a pre-IPO funding round for Sula Iron and Gold plc ("Sula"). Sula holds a 153sq km licence in Sierra Leone, which is considered highly prospective for gold and iron ore. The latter resource is of particular interest, given that Sula's territory runs contiguous to the licence containing African Minerals' 12.8 billion tonne Tonkolili mine. The next step for Sula is to establish JORC-compliant resources and funding to undertake associated exploration is likely to be sought through admission to a public market, perhaps before the end of 2012. Legendary's investment is by way of a convertible loan, and if admission to a public market is achieved, the Legendary will receive a half-warrant for every share held.
Legendary has also invested £50,000 in cash in Regency Mines plc (AIM: RGM; "Regency"). Regency is a mineral exploration and development company focusing on nickel and cobalt in Papua New Guinea (alongside JV partner Direct Nickel) and gold, flake graphite and base metals in Australia. Regency focuses on selected projects which have the potential to develop into world class assets, diversifying the risk by maintaining a transactional and mining investment business. For example, with equity leverage to Direct Nickel's potentially revolutionary laterite nickel processing technology, the strategy has the potential to generate asymmetric returns. Legendary invested at a price of 1.25 pence per share.
Although we are disappointed to report our withdrawal from Undrawn Reality, we are encouraged by progress elsewhere, including our investments in Fastnet Oil & Gas plc (formerly Terra Energy) and MedGold Resources, which we understand remains on-track for its own admission to a public market.
With the funds raised in late 2011, Legendary has a stronger balance sheet and is now able to invest more meaningful amounts, so we are pleased to present these latest portfolio additions to shareholders. The Board looks forward with confidence to continuing to build shareholder value at Legendary.
Contact: | ||
Legendary Investments Plc | Zafar Karim / Rajesh Rai / Thomas Reuner
| 020 8201 3536 |
Grant Thornton Corporate Finance
| Colin Aaronson/ Melanie Frean
| 020 7383 5100 |
Simple Investments | Nick Emerson/ Andrew Thacker | 01483 413500 |