Equals Gp Regulatory News (EQLS)

26 September 2019

Equals Group plc

("Equals" or "the Group" or "the Company")

New Directorate Position

Equals Group PLC, the fast-growing and acquisitive e-banking and international payments group announces the appointment of Richard Cooper to the Board as Group Finance Director, with effect from 14 October 2019. This is a newly-created executive Board position and reflects both the expansion of the Group and the ambitious plans for the future.

Tony Quirke, the current non-board level CFO, will remain with the business in a senior executive role.

Richard joins the Board with extensive public market and growth company experience. He was the CFO of GVC Holdings plc, one of the world's largest sports betting and gaming groups, from 2008 to 2017. Whilst at GVC, Richard played a key role in the implementation of the Company's acquisition strategy during that period, together with its move from AIM to the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange's Main Market. GVC is currently included within the FTSE 250 index. He was also a non-executive director and chairman of the Audit Committee of Sportech Plc from May 2017 to October 2018.

Richard, a Chartered Accountant, is currently a non-executive director of two small quoted companies: VR Education Holdings plc, a technology focused education company quoted on AIM and NewGiocco inc, an online sports betting company whose shares are currently traded on the OTC of Nasdaq. He is also a non-executive director of a number of private companies.

Ian Strafford-Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, commented: 

"The Group welcomes Richard to the Board and we look forward to the benefit of his extensive experience in growing public companies, at a time where we seek to expand through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth."

Further disclosures pursuant to Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies:

Richard, aged 58, is currently or has previously been a director of the following companies within the past five years:

Save as disclosed above, there is no further information to be disclosed pursuant to Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

For more information, please contact:

About Equals

Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at 35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.

Equals provides money movement services to both personal and business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a market-leading business-expenses solution based around its corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream administrative processes and integrates into accounting software, thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a debit card.