Alfa Financial Software Holdings Regulatory News (ALFA)

18 January 2022

Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC

Launch of Share Buyback Programme

Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC ("Alfa" or the "Company"), a leading developer of mission-critical software for the asset finance industry announces that it will launch a share buyback programme (the "Programme").

Introduction

As we noted in the pre-close trading update last week, Alfa has closed 2021 strongly and is confident in its prospects for 2022. The business continues to be highly cash positive after returning £77m of capital to shareholders through special and ordinary dividends since November 2020 and retains significant net cash balances. Future cash projections show continued generation of more cash than the Company needs for its growth plans. As a result, the Board has concluded that going forward, a buyback programme should be combined with our ordinary regular dividend as a balanced approach for returning capital to shareholders.

Under the terms of the resolution passed at the Company's annual general meeting on 10 May 2021 (the "2021 AGM"), the Company has the authority to buy back up to 10% or 30 million of its ordinary shares.

Terms of the share buyback

The Company has entered into an arrangement with Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its investment bank ("Barclays") to purchase ordinary shares in the Company up to an aggregate purchase price of £18 million over the next 18 months, which at an illustrative share price of 200p would equate to 9 million shares or 3% of Alfa's issued share capital. The total number of shares acquired under the Programme will vary depending on the share price at the time of the relevant purchase. Share purchases will be made by Barclays on the Company's behalf and, in the case of any purchases made during closed periods, shall be made independently of and uninfluenced by the Company.

The purpose of these share purchases is to reduce the Company's share capital (any shares repurchased for this purposed will be cancelled) and to enable the Company to meet obligations arising from share option programmes (any shares repurchased for this purpose will be held in treasury). The Company's current intention is to satisfy all share options and share savings plans with shares purchased on the market and not to issue any new shares to satisfy future option exercises.

The Programme will be subject to the terms of the arrangement with Barclays and in any case will be effected in a manner consistent with (i) the general authority vested in the Company to repurchase shares granted by the Company's shareholders at the 2021 AGM and, following the expiration of such authority, any subsequent buyback authority granted during the arrangement (the aggregate number of ordinary shares authorised to be purchased by the Company shall be less than 15% of the Company's ordinary share capital at the date of such authority), (ii) Chapter 12 of the United Kingdom Listing Rules, which require that the maximum price paid be limited to be no more than the lower of (a) 105% of the average middle market closing price of the Company's ordinary shares for the five business days before the purchase is made, and (b) the higher of the price of the last independent trade and the highest current independent bid on the trading venue where the purchase is carried out, and (iii) the provisions of the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014/EU (as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) dealing with buyback programmes. 

Andrew Denton, Chief Executive Officer of Alfa said:

"I am delighted that the strong momentum we have developed in the business, our confidence in our prospects and the strong cash generation characteristics of our business, have enabled us to increase returns to shareholders by supplementing our regular dividend with the launch of this share buyback programme".

Enquiries

Notes to Editors

Alfa has been delivering software systems and consultancy services to the global asset and automotive finance industry since 1990. Our best practice methodologies and specialised knowledge of asset finance facilitates delivery of large software implementations and highly complex business change projects. With an excellent delivery track record spanning three decades, Alfa's experience and performance is unrivalled in the industry.

Alfa Systems, our class-leading technology platform, is at the heart of some of the world's largest asset finance companies. Key to the business case for each implementation is Alfa Systems' ability to replace multiple customer systems with our single platform. Alfa Systems supports both retail and corporate business for auto, equipment, wholesale and dealer finance on a multijurisdictional basis, including leases/loans, originations and servicing. An end-to-end solution with integrated workflow and automated processing using business rules, Alfa Systems provides compelling solutions to asset finance companies.

Alfa Systems is currently used by customers or has live implementations in 26 countries and Alfa has offices in Europe, Australasia and North America. For more information, visit www.alfasystems.com.