16 Aug 2010 10:02
City of London Group plc ("COLG")
COLG places 750,000 shares with Helium Special Situations Fund
COLG is pleased to announce that it has today placed 750,000 ordinary shares of £0.10 each with Helium Special Situations Fund (Helium) at £0.75 per share, raising £562,500. COLG has also issued warrants to Helium to acquire up to a further 200,000 shares at £0.75 or, if higher, at net asset value, exercisable at any time at Helium's option until 16 August 2011.
The new shares will be admitted to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the main market for listed securities of London Stock Exchange plc from 08.00 tomorrow (August 17).
The funds will be used for adding to COLG's continuing programme of seed funding of specialist alternative funds.
Eric Anstee, Chief Executive of COLG said, "We are delighted that Helium and David Newton, Co-investment adviser to the fund run by ISPartners Investment Solutions have elected to make this significant investment in COLG. Given the excellent returns Helium have consistently delivered to their investors this is a significant endorsement of our investment strategy and business model. We expect to be able to contribute to their track record of investment success going forward".
David Newton, Co-investment adviser to Helium said, "This investment follows our strategy of investing in micro-cap companies after careful stock selection. We look for situations where we consider there is significant under valuation, a strong business model and supported by a strong management team".
The above placing and issue of warrants is in accordance with the existing authorities granted to the Board at the 2009 AGM, to issue shares for cash of up to 10% of the issued share capital at a price per share of no less than the net asset value of its ordinary shares.
The Company advises that on completion of the placing on 17 August 2010, the total number of ordinary shares in issue will be 10,936,642, with each share carrying the right to one vote. Of these, 190,273 shares are held in Treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 10,746,369.
The above figure may 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, COLG under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
The 2010 Annual General Meeting for City of London Group plc will be held on August 18.
16 August 2010
For Further Information:
| City of London Group plc |
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| Eric Anstee, Chief Executive | +44 (0) 20 7628 5518 / + 44 (0) 7836 666 339 |
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| Helium Special Situations Fund |
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| David Newton / Christian Benz | +41 (0) 43 888 7338 |
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| College Hill |
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| Roddy Watt/Tony Friend | +44 (0) 20 7457 2020 |
Notes to Editors:
City of London Group plc (COLG) is an investment company, with a wide range of national and international investments. A public company since 1986, COLG has had a full London Stock Exchange listing since August 1996 (LSE symbol CIN).
The Group's strategy is to build a Quality Financial Services Group centred on specialist financing and Alternative Fund Management. It seeks above-average performance in growth and income via a prudent mix of low, medium and higher-risk investments. It holds a legacy portfolio of income stocks, offering a high degree of security, which are balanced by a higher risk portfolio, which is primarily focused on the minerals and resources sector, where the Board has particular experience. Its future will create a number of specialist funds to support business models and management skills where financing opportunities exist and yet conventional funding is not available.
Since the final quarter of 2009, significant Seed funds have been pledged to Therium Capital Management Limited a third party Litigation Funder and St.Helens Finance legal Funding providing working capital loans to law firms.Historical Investments have been made in Fundamental Tracker Investment Management Ltd, a privately quoted asset management company based in Glasgow (www.fundamentaltracker.com) and FX Capital Group, a privately quoted foreign exchange dealing company (www.fxcapitalgroup.co.uk). These investments are part of a policy of building a range of interests in the financial services sector.