Driver Grp Regulatory News (DRV)

14 June 2022

Driver Group plc

("Driver Group" or the "Company")

Share Buyback

Driver Group plc (AIM: DRV), the leading global professional services consultancy to the construction and engineering industries providing multi-disciplinary consultancy services including expert witness, claims and dispute resolution services, is pleased to announce that it intends to conduct on-market purchases under a share buyback programme to repurchase £0.5 million of the Company's ordinary shares of 0.4 pence each ("Ordinary Shares") pursuant to the authority obtained at the Company's last annual general meeting (the "Buyback").

The purpose of the Buyback is to return cash to shareholders and to reduce the share capital of the Company. The Buyback will be funded from the Company's existing surplus cash resources and all Ordinary Shares purchased will be held in treasury.  The Company intends to operate the Buyback from the date of this announcement until the earlier of the 2023 Annual General Meeting or close of business on the date which is 15 months from the 2022 Annual General Meeting.

The Company has appointed Singer Capital Markets Securities Limited ("Singer Capital Markets") to execute and manage the Buyback and has given an irrevocable instruction to Singer Capital Markets to make market purchases of Ordinary Shares on its behalf, independently to the Company. Singer Capital Markets will make its trading decisions in relation to the Ordinary Shares independently of the Company.

The maximum price which may be paid by the Company per Ordinary Share shall not be more than the higher of:

a. 105 per cent of the average of the middle market quotations for an Ordinary Share as derived from the Daily Official List of the London Stock Exchange plc for the five business days immediately preceding the day on which the purchase is made; and

b. the value of an Ordinary Share calculated on the basis of the higher of the price quoted for (i) the last independent trade of and (ii) the highest current independent bid for the Ordinary Shares.

c. The maximum amount (excluding expenses) of share value that can be traded in one week is £125,000.

The Company has determined that it will not rely on the safe harbour conditions for trading set out in Article 5 of EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596/EU) (which forms part of domestic UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) ("UK MAR") given the limited liquidity in the Ordinary Shares and limitations that it would impose on the number of Ordinary Shares that can be purchased and, as such, the Company may purchase on any trading day materially in excess of 25 per cent. of the average daily volume in the 20 trading days preceding the date on which the purchase is carried out.

There is no guarantee that the Buyback programme will be implemented in full or that any purchases will be made. 

As at the time of this announcement, the Company's total issued share capital consists of 53,962,868, of which 639,654 shares are held in treasury, therefore, the total number of Ordinary shares carrying voting rights is 53,323,214.

The above figure of 53,323,214 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, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of UK MAR.

ENDS

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