31 May 2018 07:00
31 May 2018
Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited (the "Company")Completion of Second Compulsory Redemption and Total Voting Rights
The Board of Directors of Aberdeen Private Equity Limited is pleased to announce that the partial compulsory redemption of the Company's shares announced on 23 May 2018 has been completed with the redemption of 27,272,623 Shares ("Compulsory Redemption").
The Company has today redeemed 27,272,623 Shares, on a pro rata basis, returning a total of
£3.0 million (the equivalent of approximately 71.3% of net assets as at 30 April 2018). The redemption price was 11.0 pence for each Share being redeemed. Such shares were cancelled automatically following their redemption.
Fractions of shares produced by the applicable redemption ratios have not been redeemed and so the number of shares redeemed in respect of each shareholder has been rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares.
Estimated Net Asset Value* per remaining share
Based on the 30 April 2018 estimated NAV and reflecting the Compulsory Redemption, the Net Asset Value per remaining share in issue is 4.6 pence or net assets of £1.3 million.
The 30 April 2018 estimated NAV includes a deduction for tax payable under the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation, as referred to in the Company's announcement of 27 February 2018, but excludes tax that is potentially recoverable. The amount withheld by the buyer for this purpose has now been finalised at approximately US$2.3 million. There can be no certainty that this full amount will be recovered, but, at the current exchange rate, this would equate, in terms of the NAV per remaining share in issue of a further approximately 3.2 pence.
It is expected that any recoverable tax proceeds would be returned to shareholders as part of the Company's liquidation process. The timetable for liquidation will be dependent on how quickly the Company and its tax advisers can finalise its US tax filings and recover the tax withheld. A final pre-liquidation redemption may be paid in June as explained in the Circular.
Redemption Shares
Payments of redemption proceeds are expected to be effected either through CREST (in the case of shares held in uncertificated form) or by cheque (in the case of shares held in certificated form) on or around 5 June 2018. Any share certificates for the balance of holdings of shares will also be despatched to shareholders on or around 5 June 2018.
The Shares were disabled in CREST on the record date (30 May 2018) and the existing ISIN number GG00BD5G6386 (the "Old ISIN") has expired.
New ISIN and Total Voting Rights
The new ISIN number GG00BFNS0161 (the "New ISIN") in respect of the remaining 27,226,397 Shares which have not been redeemed will be enabled and will be available for transactions on 31 May 2018. The total number of Shares in issue is now 27,226,397, of which no Shares are held in treasury. Therefore, the number of Shares with voting rights attached now in issue is 27,226,397 and this is the figure which should be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
Inclusive of this redemption, the Company will have returned £151.6 million to Shareholders, or approximately 93.7% of the Company's 30 November 2017 NAV, the prevailing NAV at the time of the Company's announcement that it had entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement to sell its entire investment portfolio.
\* The estimated NAV has been prepared in good faith by the Company's administrator and is for information purposes only. The Estimated NAV has not been subjected to any independent verification or other due diligence and may not comply with generally accepted accounting practices or other generally accepted valuation principles. Other risk factors which may be relevant to these valuations are set out in the Company's Prospectus, dated 6th June 2007, and the Circular, dated 1 February 2018.
For further information, please contact:
Ipes (Guernsey) Limited
Damien Fitzgerald
T: +44 1481 755 137
Helen Chamberlain
T: +44 1481 735 822