24 Dec 2013 07:00
City of London Group plc ("COLG" or the "Company" or the "Group")
Lapse of the £17.4 million conditional placing agreement with Paul Iliescu and Bruce Mee
Board changes
24 December 2013
Further to the announcements of 1 November 2013, 29 November 2013, 4 December 2013 and 17 December 2013, the Board of COLG (the "Board") announces that the £17.4 million required to be placed in escrow pursuant to the conditional placing agreement entered into with Paul Iliescu, a high net worth German citizen, and Bruce Mee, founder and CEO of LibraAM AG and a Zug based financial investor (together, the "New Investors"), was not received by the close of business on 23 December 2013 and accordingly the proposed £17.4 million conditional placing agreement has lapsed.
The New Investors have indicated that they continue to wish to pursue a transaction with the Group on the terms of the 4 December 2013 announcement. The Board has declined a further extension of the deadline for subscription monies being put in escrow in accordance with the terms of the 4 December conditional placing agreement.
The Company will review its strategic options, recognising that it will need to secure additional funds from alternative sources to fund the underlying platform development requirements highlighted in the Board's announcements of 1 November and 4 December 2013 and to ensure shareholder value in its Trading Platforms is not eroded.
In the announcement of 29 November 2013, the Board confirmed it had secured sufficient new debt facilities to provide the operational capital needed to meet its immediate requirements. These facilities should allow sufficient time to continue discussions to secure the ongoing operations of the Group.
John Williams, Chairman, and Nigel Sidebottom non executive director, have resigned as directors with effect from 23 December. Andrew Crowe, who was previously an alternate director of the Company and who has an interest in 8.56 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital, has been appointed a non-executive director of the Company with immediate effect. The Company intends to identify new independent non executive director(s) as soon as practicable in the New Year.
There are no other disclosures to be made under Listing Rule 9.6.13 in respect of Andrew Crowe.
Enquiries
City of London Group plc +44 (0)20 7628 5518 / 07768 030102
John Kent
N+1 Singer Capital Markets +44 (0) 20 7496 3000
Jonny Franklin-Adams
FTI Consulting +44 (0)20 7269 7103
Hazel Stevenson
Notes to Editors
A copy of this announcement will be available at www.cityoflondongroup.com. The content of the website referred to in this announcement is not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.
City of London Group plc is fully listed on the London Stock Exchange plc (LSE symbol CIN). COLG is a financial services group focused on providing merchant banking services to finance the SME and professional services sectors. It does this by financing trade and securing specialist funding throughout the supply chain to help fuel growth in these sectors, as major national and foreign banks limit new lending to these borrowers. COLG seeks to identify and exploit product niches and business models in these sectors where they are supported by strong day to day management teams, providing initial equity, working capital and seed funding for those teams.
Since 2009, COLG has focused on Specialist Financing and Alternative Fund Management. As part of its strategy to build a quality Financial Services Group, COLG has developed four specialist financing funds, pledging significant seed funds to Therium Capital Management Limited, a third party Litigation Funder, Credit Asset Management Limited and Professions Funding Limited, which respectively provide asset backed finance to SMEs and working capital loans to professional practice firms and finally Trade Finance Partners Limited, a trade finance provider to the SME market.
Note on forward looking statements
This statement may contain certain statements about the future outlook for COLG and its subsidiaries. Although the directors believe their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any statements about the future outlook may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes to be materially different. This statement has been drawn up and presented with the purposes of complying with English law. Any liability arising out of or in connection with it will be determined in accordance with English law.